If you think that death makes for morbid reading, then you need to read this book. For one of its messages is that we begin to die from the moment we are born, and that we need to prepare for death during life, to ‘practise dying’, if we are to die well.
James Woodward, who was Bishop Richard Harries’ first chaplain, is well-placed to lead thinking about death and dying: he spent a year as an auxiliary nurse at St Christopher’s Hospice, south London, and is now founding director of a centre in the Midlands for the study of ageing, spirituality and social policy. He was for several years chaplain to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, and has a book on illness to his name.
One of the characteristic strengths of his writing is the space given to different voices which talk about the subject from a personal angle, and which root the discussion in the reality of diversity and people’s lived experiences. Another strength of this book is its recurrent attention to the practicalities of death and dying. Yet a third strength is that the perspective of faith is not assumed, or intrusive, but unapologetically present, and offered as a resource. This means that the book may be as useful to someone uncommitted to Christian faith as to someone committed, whether facing the death of a loved one, or facing death themselves, or simply endeavouring to embrace the reality of death more honestly and creatively ‘in the midst of life’.
The Revd Michael Brierley is chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford
Befriending Death by James Woodward, published by SPCK - Order Online
