Missions Resources - Bibliography
The Art of Dying Well
Authors: Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (trans. John Patrick Donnelly, SJ)
ISBN: 0-8091-2875-6
Publisher: Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1989
Summary:
One should live well who wishes to die well. For since death is merely the end of life, surely everyone who lives well up to the end cannot die badly, because he has not lived badly. (The Art of Dying Well, p. 239)
Where do we go when absurd and meaningless death lies all around us? Whenever the absurd forces its way into our lives, we fall back on whatever we've stored up for ourselves. So if our response to stress has always been, for example, drowning in a bottle, that's where we'll turn when tragedy strikes.
I've recently grown weary of spiritual leaders who talk about "liberating" us from "religion." By "religion," they usually mean unreflected routines and cold prayers - so the motivation is a good one, just a little miguided.
Certainly, lukewarmness has no place in the Christian life. But there is a world of difference between disciplined spiritual living and dead routine. After all, routines, rhythms and rituals comprise the bulk of our doings in a given day. Furthermore, humans need rituals. When our spirituality leaves us without roots, we find ourselves inventing new rituals - everything from candlelight vigils to singing Christmas trees.
The beauty of learning from those believers who have gone before us is discovering God's wisdom, and timeless relevance, in the words of people who lived entirely different lives than us - but with whom we will live with in paradise.
Such a Christian is Robert Bellarmine. An Italian churchman from the sixteenth century, Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621) is most well-known for his row with Galileo. However, he was a fine writer with deep spiritual insights anchored with a pragmatic understanding of real life.
The Art of Dying Well is a wonderful book. It is a mature, Christlike response to the mortality that awaits all of us. Very rarely can you find any Christian resources from our own generation that treat death with the straightfaced courage and untroubled Christian hope Bellarmine writes into every page.
The first section is about living well for Christ, because the 'best' death follows the best life. The second section deals with looming death in ones last days.
Like the current pope, Cardinal Bellarmine was both a pastor and a theologian, capable of reasoning with the sharpest minds in the world. But in this simple devotional, Bellarmine adapts a simple conversational tone. He was just a humble priest, trying to help suffering people.
This book is nearly four hundred years old, but it's not out of date.
-Paul Grant
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