15 Sep New Book, New Podcast!
“As strange as it seems, coming to terms with our limits as dying creatures is a life-giving path.”
After five years of research, conversations, writing, and edit after edit, The End of the Christian Life is now out and available! I’m grateful to so many students, pastors, scholars, cancer patients and others who helped to make this book possible. The writing process was a challenging one — as I integrated my theological explorations and questions with the [nonfiction] stories of various friends and acquaintances who have died. Hopefully, the result is a book that has theological substance and existential power. It’s available now in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
The last five years have felt like a quest — often urgent, sometimes winding — and I’ve discovered many wonderful thought-companions on the journey. So, in addition to the book release, today we’re releasing the first two episodes in a six-episode podcast series to introduce readers to some of these wonderful (and at times quirky!) folks. Here’s a bit more about the podcast, with a link to the podcast page:
Happy. Healthy. Healed.
Isn’t that what the Christian life is all about? Join Dr. J. Todd Billings, author of the new book, The End of the Christian Life, as he interviews pastors, therapists, undertakers, and scholars to explore the surprising claim that embracing mortality frees us to truly live.
The first two podcasts were varied but quite remarkable conversations. The first is with KJ Ramsey, an articulate Christian therapist who also lives with chronic illness. The second is with David Gibson, a pastor-theologian in Scotland who wrote a riveting book on everyone’s favorite biblical book — Ecclesiastes!
After years of receiving feedback on draft after draft, I’m eager to get the book (and podcast) to actual readers and listeners. That’s who all of the hard work was for! And if you read the book, let the world know what you think of it with a review on GoodReads or Amazon. I hope that the book helps, in a small way, to general conversation and reflection about one of the most vital realities for every person, and every person who follows Jesus, to consider: how to live in light of the fact that we are dying. As much as our contemporary culture wants to distract us from that reality, it’s basic to being human. And it’s in the dry ground of realistic reflection about our mortality that the good news of Christ and his resurrection can truly take root and flourish.