Memento Mori: Helping the Church Regain the Lost Art of Dying Well.

By Robert Pratico

Synopsis

For nineteen centuries in the church, death was public and sex was private. That flipped in the middle of the 20th century – and death became private while sex emerged public. The church unfortunately relegated death to a forbidden topic. The ancient church held a view of death that the contemporary church would find strange. In the 4th century, Ambrose (the mentor for Augustine) called physical death a “blessing” and a “good.”

Historians estimate that up to two-thirds of Europe’s population died during the Bubonic plague that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages. Deaths included clergy and other spiritual authorities. With so much death, there weren’t enough clergy to attend to the dying and bury the dead. The church began producing documents known as Ars Moriendi (Latin for “art of dying’) to help the laity prepare for death themselves without clergy. Ars Moriendi handbooks were in widespread use all over the West for more than five hundred years. Mors Improvisa (Latin for sudden/unexpected/unforseen death) was considered the worst form of death in the Middle Ages because one could not prepare for death. Contrast that with today where it is generally regarded as the ideal way to die – i.e., in one’s sleep not even knowing that they were sick.

In the 20th century, the church’s focus shifted from living a virtuous life and ending it well, to living as long as possible. Ironically, medical advancement was the catalyst. Written at the urging of Dr. Timothy Paul Jones, the apologetics professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, this book includes not only solid Biblical theology but also fresh insights, practical help, touching on (among other topics) ancient death, modern death, a powerful chapter on “The Death of Death,” why Christians die, the medicalization of death, living well to die well; what it means to “die well.” In his early 70s, the author draws upon a lifetime of experience and the wisdom of the historical church. Written as an academic book for the church, it is also intended to be accessible to lay readers. This book seeks to help the contemporary church regain the lost and forgotten art of Dying Well. 

Now in final review, I expect the publisher (WIPF & Stock) to publish it sometime after the first of the year.