Jesus and the Demise of Death - by Matthew Levering

About the Book

Book Synopsis

What happens after death to Jesus and to those who follow him? Jesus and the Demise of Death offers a constructive theology that seeks to answer that very question, carefully considering both Jesus' descent into hell and eventual resurrection as integral parts of a robust vision of the Christian bodily resurrection. Taking on the claims of N.T. Wright and Richard B. Hays, Matthew Levering draws strongly upon the work of Thomas Aquinas to propose a radical reconstruction of Christian eschatological theology--one that takes seriously the profound ways in which Christianity and its beatific vision have been enriched by Platonic thought and emphasizes the role of the Church community in the passage from life to death. In so doing, Levering underscores the hope in eternal life for Jesus' followers and gives readers firm and fruitful soil upon which to base conversations about the Christian's future.

Review Quotes

...Levering underscores the hope in eternal life for Jesus' followers and gives readers firmand fruitful soil upon which to base conversations about the Christian's future.

Matthew Levering is to be warmly congratulated on at least two fronts: for addressing a neglected aspect of the New Testament theology and for attempting to build on these biblical foundations to establish a theology of death that will inform contemporary faith and practice.

About the Author

Matthew Levering is Perry Family Foundation Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. Jewish-Christian Dialogue and the Life of Wisdom; Christ and the Catholic Priesthood; Participatory Biblical Exegesis; and Biblical Natural Law. He lives Mundelein, Illinois.