دانلود کتاب Preaching Death: The Transformation of Christian Funeral Sermons

Christians traditionally have had something substantive and important to say about death and afterlife. Yet the language and imagery used in sermons about life and death have given way to language designed to comfort and celebrate.

In Preaching Death, Lucy Bregman tracks the changes in Protestant American funerals over the last one hundred years. Early-twentieth-century "natural immortality" doctrinal funeral sermons transitioned to an era of "silence and denial," eventually becoming expressive, biographical tributes to the deceased. The contemporary death awareness movement, with the "death as a natural event" perspective, has widely impacted American culture, affecting health care, education, and psychotherapy and creating new professions such as hospice nurse and grief counselor. Bregman questions whether this transition―which occurred unobserved and without conflict―was inevitable and what alternative paths could have been chosen. In tracing this unique story, she reveals how Americans' comprehension of death shifted in the last century―and why we must find ways to move beyond it.

Review
Bregman offers very interesting perspectives for pastoral workers as well as for empirical researchers in the field of death and dying.

(Brenda Mathijssen, Radboud University Nijmegen Modern Believing)
Review
Lucy Bregman's primary concern is our legacy, not in terms of what we leave behind when we die but with the images and meanings we create as we live in the presence of death. In a unique and provocative twist, she challenges readers to use historical imagination to envision alternative theologies of death in 20th century America. Preaching Death should be read by historians, preachers, and poets, and by anyone who longs to re-imagine death and grief in the 21st century.

(Margaret R. McLean, Associate Director and Director of Bioethics, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University)

Lucy Bregman's incredible scholarship, laced with her practical judgment, creates sparkling insights at every turn. A must-read for pastors, for those who teach them, and for grief counselors of any stripe; this is their story, too.

(Dennis Klass, author of The Spiritual Lives of Bereaved Parents)

Lucy Bregman has once again brought her experience to bear upon the weighty topic of death dying, and the afterlife. Clear, concise, and accessibly written, this book will doubtless be of interest to a wide audience, including not only those interested in Christian theology but those with a general interest in modern attitudes to death, dying, loss, and bereavement.

(Christopher M. Moreman, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, California State University, East Bay)