{"product_id":"undiscovered-country-imagining-the-world-to-come-9781596271074","title":"Undiscovered Country: Imagining the World to Come","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy do most contemporary Christians pull a blank when it comes to imagining a life with God after death? Although the Bible is largely silent on the issue, our world is completely riveted by the up-to-date visions of heaven and hell that stock bookstore shelves and are found everywhere on the Internet. But what are believers to think and to say about the “undiscovered country” that is the life to come—from the pulpit, at the hospital, or in our daily lives?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter Hawkins\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eoffers a fresh way to pose these questions, along with an imaginative framework for answering them. He challenges all of us, not just preachers, to think of Dante’s drama of the afterlife—heaven, hell and purgatory—as a true story describing the lives we are living now. To this end Hawkins uses the Divine Comedy to help us imagine what happens when we die as he works his way through Christian tradition, contemporary culture, a rich array of literature, and his own personal experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hawkins trusts a God who is rooted in human love even when that love is predictably frail or goes pitifully awry. He is a student of what it means to be 'up to love,' no matter how painful the lesson, which makes him the best kind of teacher. In the end, I think, that is what drives this book: his wish to teach us that our imagination of the afterlife has power to change our lives now.”\u003cbr\u003e —Barbara Brown Taylor, author of \u003ci\u003eLeaving Church\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A dazzling teacher, preacher, and scholar, Peter Hawkins is also a man possessed by big questions, not least whether life in this world is a dress rehearsal of sorts or the Big Show itself. This is beautiful book, attentive to the holiness of things not only as we imagine them to be, but also as they actually are.”\u003cbr\u003e —Stephen Prothero, author of the prize-winning \u003ci\u003eReligious Literacy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this lovely book, Peter Hawkins meditates upon Dante and the afterlife—the greatest of poets, the highest of hopes—with the art, insight, and generosity that these noble subjects deserve. His short text lingers long in the memory, calling believer and skeptic alike to ponder more deeply and imagine more richly the fate that awaits us all.”\u003cbr\u003e —Philip Zaleski, editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Spiritual Writing \u003c\/i\u003eseries\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Like Dante, Peter Hawkins is a master lay theologian. And like the \u003ci\u003eDivine Comedy \u003c\/i\u003eitself, whose cadences echo through these pages, his Beecher lectures deftly marry ascetic longings to aesthetic delights, and accomplish the task with wit, passion, and a stunning erudition both dearly won and lightly worn.”\u003cbr\u003e —Roger Ferlo, Virginia Theological Seminary\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Church Publishing Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359688819031,"sku":"9781596271074","price":12.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781596271074.jpg?v=1754125415","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/undiscovered-country-imagining-the-world-to-come-9781596271074","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}