I have ready many books on the subject of death and dying, this one is a solid "okay". It covers both the process of dying as well as what could possibly happen after, before leaving us with the authors opinion on the afterlife. In regards to the afterlife it mainly focuses on the Christian belief of what happens after we die, I would have liked to see some variety and other religious or spiritual theories as well.

A very disheartening view of life and death. There are 6 chapters of historical review of man's (Christian) thinking on what happens when one dies, with the final view of the author being that we simply cease to be, except how we have affected the world around us.

I find this view very difficult to bring into congruence with the teaching of the New Testament, especially Jesus' teaching in Matthew 25 about the separation of the sheep and the goats. If there is no life following the life as we know it now, then there is no need for concern with judgment. For than matter there is no need for a savior, because we do not need to be saved from anything. It also means that there was no need for Jesus to die on the cross. I suppose those are simply natural progressive steps from removing the authority of the New Testament books, as always happens when the dates are pushed away from the time of Jesus' life, and the belief that his actual teachings have been forgotten, added to and/or reshaped to fit one's personal preferences.

The final chapter of this book turns from a historical study of views of death, and supplementary therefore the meaning of life, to a polemic argument for assisted suicide and the right to chose death. While some of the arguments are based seem to be based upon compassion and care, they seem to very much be based upon the notion that we live, we die and that's all more so than any other influencing factors.

Over all I can only give this two stars because the historical movement was well organized, though it seems very one sided.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

This book is about both the process of dying and the question of what, if anything, happens after death. Starting with theology and ending with an overview of the authors' conclusions, this is a through and deeply, thoughtful process of Death and the right to die.

3☆