Abstract
Theologian J. Todd Billings’ The end of Christian life tackles the human dilemma: How do we live while facing the assurance of physical death? In addressing the Christian, Billings answers, “Even the wound [death's shadow] can remind us of who we are: beloved yet small and mortal children of God, bearing witness to the Lord of creation who will set things right on the final day” (p. 11). Billings provides an incomparable perspective, being diagnosed with incurable cancer at age 39, a narrative which he weaves throughout the book. His primary argument is not that the fear of death is removed but rather that death itself is removed from the throne. Jesus reigns on the throne, not death (p. 75). Billings provides evidence for his argument in a thoroughly theological approach, though written at the popular level.
Chapter One evaluates the misconception that Sheol is reserved just for the physically dead. Billings, through the story of Jonah, presents a much more nuanced view of how the Israelites viewed this term. Sheol, a place where humanity may travel while living or dead, is the dividing line between God's presence and God's “apparent absence” (p. 25). For example, while Jonah is alive in the fish's stomach, he feels the removal of God's presence, hence experiencing Sheol.
Chapter Two discusses two views on mortality. First, Billings acknowledges death as punishment for sin (Rom 5:12). Secondly, he asks, “Is death portrayed as ‘natural’ in Scripture, or is it fundamentally ‘unnatural,’ deeply contrary to God's intention for creation?” (p. 51). He surmises that immortality in our current fallen state is a painful burden. Irenaeus is presented in the chapter as providing a choice: embrace death and trust God as life's provider or strive after health and immortality under our own finite power (p. 55). Billings concludes that death includes both the joyful embracing of eternity and the horror of losing life: both God's providence and the sting of sin.
Chapter Three explores humanity's natural fear of death. Christians should walk in freedom from dwelling on death, enabling us to “fully serve, worship, and bear witness to the true King Jesus” (p. 75). Christians should not “partialize” our lives (p. 85). Billings encourages Christians to see their lives in the broader context of time and the diverse people around us. Looking inward only increases anxieties and creates the dangerous position of making us “a hero of our own story” (p. 85).
Chapter Four discusses the adverse effects of pursuing life through modern medical options. Modern medicine “trains us to think and feel our final battle is not against sin and the devil but against illness and dying” (p. 96). Billings affirms the good gift of medicine but critiques modernity's false worship of death's ability to be conquered. The chapter also discusses how we create death-denying habits, or cultural liturgies, that separate the living from the dying process.
Chapter Five answers the question: how should Christians define and pursue health and prosperity? For example, Christians often seek long-shot medical measures, giving God “opportunities” to miraculously heal. While nothing is inherently wrong with pursuing health through medicine, these views often overlook God's redemptive promises and purposes through physical death. In a sense, the prosperity gospel has seeped into Christian belief in medicine. Billings argues that the cross is magnified “in suffering that doesn’t seem to make sense” (p. 137). Billings suggests we turn to a longing for the promises of God's Kingdom, reorienting our murky conceptions of prosperity to eternal things.
Chapter Six affirms that our Christian hope will not be fully realized until Christ's consummation and our bodily resurrection. Our resurrection will be personal with Christ and others who are resurrected, both cosmic and corporate. With strong caution, Billings details some value in near-death experiences for gazing at future life “in a mirror dimly” (1 Cor 13:12) (p. 168).
The last chapter focuses on “episodes of God's speech to mortals” (p. 181). God's miracles are rare, pointing to the normative experiences of our mortal limitations. Miracles reframe our thoughts and are “signposts of the truth of God's promise that death is not the final word” (p. 186). Miracles give humanity a glimpse of an eschatological future by promising a new temple and dwelling place.
While Billings brings many helpful points to the Christian conversation about death, three are particularly notable. First, Billings effectively brings in other voices from other areas of Christian ministry and applies their ideas to death and dying. For instance, Billings thoughtfully connects James K. A. Smith's ideas on cultural liturgy to the modern, first-world culture's separation of death and dying. Modern culture liturgizes safety and good health by hiding away the old in nursing homes (p. 107). Faced with his own death, Billings knows he must be forthcoming about death with his young son. He offers an interesting and compelling counter liturgy for his son through monthly “liturgical” visits to the nursing home, where his son sees and experiences death with the old friends he has made. Using Smith's framework, Billings narrows Smith's broader application and shows we learn through repetitive lived experiences, even in how we avoid taboo subjects.
Secondly, Billings rightfully connects the shortcomings of modern medicine's pragmatic limitations. Billings pushes his readers to think of personal formation throughout the medical process. God provides struggles for his people to grow. His arguments also translate to a biblically minded pedagogy. Some Christian educators tilt toward pragmatism, pursuing solutions in new teaching methods or outlining cognitive outcomes. While these pursuits are good, perhaps some Christian educators place cognitive ideals above formational outcomes. A practical application to Christian education that may be learned from Billings is that often shepherding students through suffering is just as important as teaching the content.
Third, Billings offers a persuasive conversation on Earnest Becker's “partialization” that translates to Christian educators. Becker suggests humanity copes with immense suffering and life's big questions by partializing or focusing only on one's immediate space and time. Billings posits, “Even on our best days, we fixate on only tiny aspects of the crowded streets we walk on; people whose stories we will never know pass us by unacknowledged” (84). While Billings does not explicitly give pedagogical applications, the astute educator will find his points helpful in curriculum formation. Billings pushes readers to think more broadly, looking for ways forward in struggles, perhaps even in curriculum design and pedagogy. He challenges the reader to become acquainted with outside voices, looking for the varied stories and concepts we may miss otherwise by focusing so closely on the task at hand.
Furthermore, Billings’ ideas focus on the spiritual formation of embodied beings on pilgrimage. The traveler grows because of the journey, not by only focusing on the final destination. Likewise, teachers should develop curriculums with the educational journey in mind.
Billings’ work finds additional value in the leadership equipping setting, the seminary discussion, and the secondary classroom. His conversation on suffering looks past our sinful inward trust in overcoming trials. Our sinful hearts often brush aside or ignore our hurts or strive under human power to push past life's hurdles. Billings points the heart back to biblical foundations. God often allows image-bearers, including his children, to endure tremendous struggles. The Christian educator can use this book to help students frame their academic pursuits within a global eschatology that rightly places and responds to suffering.
Billings adds to the ongoing conversation from such works as Lewis’ A grief observed. Both works explore themes of purpose in suffering and trusting God while writing through the authors’ deeply personal crises. Teachers may find value in pairing The end of the Christian life alongside teaching the Book of Job, which would broaden the conversation on trusting God amid suffering. Educators teaching philosophy from a Christian perspective might use this book to connect how loving God's wisdom is tied to formation and obedience (Ps 111:10). For instance, the wisdom found in suffering and trusting God while approaching physical death forms Christians in the likeness of Christ. Pastors may also find the book helpful among congregants processing a terminal diagnosis.
Overall, Billings accomplishes what his subtitle suggests: “Embracing our mortality” forces us to look to Jesus as our deliverer. The end of the Christian life is not designed as a Christian Education handbook on discussing mortality. Billings does offer a well-written conversation on suffering and death, with sources stretching from the church fathers to modern secular thinkers. Throughout, he appropriately sprinkles personal anecdotes regarding his own suffering from terminal cancer. Its readability and depth make it accessible to lay persons and seminarians wanting to grapple with and apply how our mortality can and should help us walk with God. I recommend Billings’ The end of the Christian life.