There are certain quotations from English literature which are familiar to many individuals, even in the event that they have never read the works through which they occur. Examples include ‘To be or to not be, that’s the query’ from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, ‘Water, water in all places, nor any drop to drink’ from Samuel Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and ‘It was one of the best of times, it was the worst of times’ from Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities.
Although many individuals are conversant in these quotations, in the event that they are asked what they mean of their original context they often have no idea the reply. Thus, they might be unaware that within the quotation from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner what the words describe is the dreadful fate of the sailors on a becalmed ship who’re surrounded by an ocean of salt water, all of which is undrinkable.
The same instance of individuals knowing the quotation, but not what it means, is provided by two well-known quotations from the English poet and theologian John Donne. The first quotation is ‘No man is an island’ and the second is ‘never send to know for whom the bless tolls’ (normally quoted as ‘don’t ask for whom the bell tolls’). What most individuals don’t realise is that these two quotations are a part of an prolonged meditation by Donne on human mortality.
The paragraph from which they arrive runs as follows:
‘No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a chunk of the continent, an element of the most important. If a clod be washed away by the ocean, Europe is the less, in addition to if a promontory were; in addition to if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I’m involved in mankind, and subsequently never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’
The point Donne is making is that as human beings we cannot escape from death. We are a part of a dying race. When we hear a bell tolling to mark the death of one other what it tells us is ‘You too must die. Death is coming for you as well.’
The undeniable fact that death is coming for all of us, raises the inevitable query of how we must always view it. Is it something we must always be afraid of, or not?
In the Anglican Christian tradition to which I belong, a classic answer to this query is provided by the homily, or sermon, ‘Against the fear of death’ which was authorised to be used in parish churches by the Church of England within the sixteenth century.
This homily explains why there are three explanation why ‘worldly’ (i.e. ungodly) people commonly fear death:
‘…. one, because they shall lose thereby, their worldly honours, riches, possessions, and all their heart’s desires; one other, due to the painful diseases, and bitter pangs, which commonly men suffer, either before or on the time of death; however the chief cause, above all other, is the dread, of the miserable state of everlasting damnation, each of body and soul, which they fear shall follow after their departing, after the worldly pleasure of this present life. ‘
However, none of those causes should make a Christian afraid of death. This is because:
‘For death shall be to him no death in any respect, however the very deliverance from death, from all pains, cares, and sorrows, miseries, and wretchedness of this world, and the very entry into rest, and the start of everlasting joy, a tasting of heavenly pleasures, so great that neither tongue is capable of express, neither eye to see, no ear to listen to them, no, nor for any earthly man’s heart to conceive them. So exceedingly great advantages they be which God our heavenly father, by his mere mercy and for the love of his son, Jesus Christ, hath laid up in store and be prepared for them that humbly submit themselves to God’s will, and evermore unfeignedly love him, from the underside of their hearts.’
As Christians, says the homily, we should imagine:
‘….that death, being slain by Christ, cannot keep any man that steadfastly trusteth in Christ, under his perpetual tyranny and subjection, but that he shall rise again, unto glory on the last day, appointed by Almighty God, like as Christ our Head did rise again, in response to God’s appointment, the third day. For St. Augustine saith, the Head going before, the members trust to follow, and are available after. And St. Paul saith, if Christ be risen from the dead, we will also rise the identical. And to comfort all Christian individuals herein, holy Scripture calleth this bodily death a sleep; wherein man’s senses be, because it were taken from him for a season, and yet, when he awaketh, he’s more fresh than he was when he went to bed. So although we’ve got our souls separated from our bodies, for a season, yet at the final resurrection, we will be more fresh, beautiful and ideal, than we be now. For now we be mortal, then we will be immortal; now infected with divers infirmities, then clearly void of all mortal infirmities; now we be subject to all carnal desires, then we will be all spiritual, desiring nothing but God’s glory, and things everlasting.’
What these words from the homily clarify is that for a Christian the reply to the query ‘Should we fear death?’ is ‘No.’ Although we may reasonably fear the physical pain which regularly accompanies death and seek its mitigation in ourselves and others, there isn’t a reason to fear death itself, for it’s God’s appointed gateway to an unending life with him, the enjoyment of which is able to far surpass any pleasures we may experience within the life we now live.
This positive Christian view of death is underlined in two further pieces of writing on the topic from the Anglican tradition.
The first piece is John Donne’s poem ‘Death, be not proud’ through which Donne personifies death as a conceited would-be tyrant who, contrary to popular rumour, is in actual fact neither mighty, nor dreadful, because all he’s capable of do is to place people right into a state of sleep from which they’ll awaken to life everlasting.
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee rather more must flow,
And soonest our greatest men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, likelihood, kings, and desperate men,
And poppy or charms could make us sleep as well
And higher than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
The second piece is the closing words of CS Lewis’ book The Last Batlle, which is the ultimate volume of his Chronicles of Narnia. In these words, as within the Narnia stories as whole, Aslan is the personification of Christ in the shape of a lion:
‘Then Aslan turned to them and said:
‘You don’t yet look so comfortable as I mean you to be.’
Lucy said, ‘We’re so afraid of being sent away as Aslan. And you’ve sent us back into our own world so often.’
‘No Fear of that,’ said Aslan, ‘Have you not guessed?’
Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose inside them. ‘
There was an actual railway accident,’ said Aslan softly.
‘Your father and mother and all of you’re -as you used to call it within the shadow lands -dead. The term is over: the vacations have begun. The dream is ended: that is the morning.’
And as he spoke he now not looked to them like a lion; however the things that began to occur after that were so great and exquisite that I cannot write them. And for us that is the top of all of the stories, and we will most truly say that all of them lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the start of the actual story. All their life on this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the duvet and the title page: now eventually they were starting chapter one in all the nice story which nobody on earth on earth has read: which matches on eternally: through which every chapter is best than the one before.’
What all this implies is that Christians have a positive message about death which they’re called upon to share those that don’t yet know or imagine it. This message is that for all those that are rightly related to God through Jesus Christ death is just not the top. It is as a substitute merely a period of transition from which they’ll awaken to live a lifetime of total and everlasting fulfilment and blessing within the presence of God in the brand new world that’s coming.
What it’s critical to notice, nevertheless, is that Christians are usually not only called to declare that those that are rightly related to God though Jesus Christ will enjoy total and everlasting fulfilment on the opposite side of death. They are also called to declare that for individuals who are usually not related to God in this fashion death is not going to end in the enjoyment of life in God’s presence. Instead, it can end in what the Bible calls the ‘second death’ (Revelation 2:11, 2O:6, 20:14, 21:8), what the homily quoted above calls ‘the miserable state of everlasting damnation.’ To quote the words of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 ‘they shall suffer the punishment of everlasting destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his might.’ To put it more simply, the damned might be cut off from God (and subsequently all good) eternally.
Many people, including many Christians, find the thought of everlasting damnation difficult to just accept, but as CS Lewis writes, they should answer the query:
”What are you asking God to do?’ To wipe out their past sins and, in any respect costs, to provide them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But he has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They is not going to be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I’m afraid that’s what he does.’
To quote JI Packer, one other Anglican author, ‘The unbeliever has preferred to be by himself, without God, defying God, having God against him, and he shall have his alternative.’
To summarise, the Christian message is that death is just not something of which anyone must be afraid. This is because death is just not the top. As God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, so all of the dead might be raised to life on the last day and for all those that have repented and believed the life they’ll then experience might be one in all joy ad infinitum.
However, the Christian message can also be that there are those that must be very, very afraid of death. This is because in the event that they haven’t repented and believed what awaits them beyond death is just not joy ad infinitum, but misery ad infinitum as a consequence of their self-chosen alienation from God. What the Christian faith says is that who come into this latter category need to grasp this truth and, with God’s assistance, amend their lives while there remains to be time.
Martin Davie is a lay Anglican theologian and Associate Tutor in Doctrine at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.
