A national book award finalist: "one of the most life-affirming books I have read in a long time…brims with humanity, irreverence, and invigorating candor. Tom vanderbilt, the Nation"Every year I bury a couple hundred of my townspeople. So opens this singular and wise testimony. So here is homage to parents who have died and to children who shouldn't have.

In these twelve pieces his is the voice of both witness and functionary. Here are golfers tripping over grave markers, gourmands and hypochondriacs, lovers and suicides. Like all poets, thomas lynch is, unlike others, inspired by death, also hired to bury the dead or to cremate them and to tend to their families in a small Michigan town where he serves as the funeral director.

In the conduct of these duties he has kept his eyes open, his ear tuned to the indispensable vernaculars of love and grief. These are the lessons for life our mortality teaches us. Here, lynch, poet to the dying, names the hurts and whispers the condolences and shapes the questions posed by this familiar mystery.

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Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality

Masterful essays that illuminate not only how we die but also how we live. Thomas lynch, winner of an american book award and finalist for the National Book Award, and author of the highly praised The Undertaking, poet, funeral director, continues to examine the relations between the "literary and mortuary arts.

Lynch engages the reader with a mixture of poetic and funerary elements. His voice is rich and generous. Richard bernstein, new york times "What makes him such a fine essayist is that it's just the business of everyday life and death to him. Los angeles times book review "Few readers will walk away from this volume less than stunned and grateful.

Jay parini, author of Benjamin's Crossing "A luminous work of words. Nicholas delbanco, author of What Remains.

The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care

Long and thomas lynch alternately discuss several challenges facing "the good funeral, the sometimes tense relationship between pastors and funeral directors, " including the commercial aspects that have led many to be suspicious of funeral directors, the tendency of modern funerals to exclude the body from the service, and the rapid growth in cremation.

Used book in Good Condition. Two of the most authoritative voices on the funeral industry come together here in one volume to discuss the current state of the funeral. It is an essential resource for funeral directors, and pastors, morticians, and anyone else interested in current funeral practices. The book features forewords from patrick Lynch, President of the National Funeral Directors Association, and Barbara Brown Taylor, highly praised author and preacher.

Through their different lenses--one as a preacher and one as a funeral director--Thomas G.

Accompany Them with Singing--The Christian Funeral

Used book in Good Condition. Long, one of america's most trusted and thoughtful pulpit voices, provides a much needed theological and cultural critique of today's Christian funeral. Long argues that the proper christian funeral should be constructed around the metaphor of the deceased as a saint traveling on a baptismal journey toward God, accompanied by the community of faith on "the last mile of the way.

He cautions that the cultural conditions for maintaining this view are under stress and a new, less theological and less satisfying metaphor that focuses on the mourner has begun to erode the Christian view. He contrasts the ancient grand community drama with today's trend toward body-less memorial services that focus primarily on the living and grief management, arguing that this is a loss for the church and calling for the church to reclaim the classic metaphor.

Thomas G. Long begins by describing how the christian funeral developed historically, and liturgically and then discusses recent cultural trends in funeral practices, theologically, including the rise in number of cremations and memorial services. Used book in Good Condition. He describes the basic pattern for a funeral service, details options in funeral planning, identifies characteristics of a "good funeral, " and provides thoughtful guidance for preaching at a funeral.

But long also notes a disturbing trend toward funeral services that seem theologically right and pastorally caring but actually depart from the primary aims of the Christian funeral.

All Our Losses, All Our Griefs: Resources for Pastoral Care

Grief as a lifelong human experience is the scope of this absorbing book. Used book in Good Condition. Used book in Good Condition. This examination is enriched by vivid illustrations and case histories of individuals whose experiences the authors have shared. Used book in Good Condition. Kenneth mitchell and herbert anderson explore the multiple dimensions of the problem, caring for those who grieve, including the origins and dynamics of grief, loss throughout life, and the theology of grieving.

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Grief: Contemporary Theory and the Practice of Ministry

Through exploration of critical topics including attachment to God, and religious coping in grief, meaning making, readers are brought right to the heart of a contemporary understanding of grief. Used book in Good Condition. The result is a substantial disconnect between grief research, theory, and careÂ—which has evolved greatly over the last two decadesÂ—and ministerial practice.

Using a metaphor of grief as a mosaic, integrated with important theological, Melissa Kelley presents contemporary grief theory and research, religious, and ministerial perspectives. The experience of grief has been a source of intrigue and curiosity throughout history, and it continues to stimulate thought and theory in various fields of study.

Unfortunately, these fields tend to function in isolation from each other. Written in an accessible way for ministers, and all pastoral and spiritual caregivers, ministers-in-training, this book provides the most up-to-date theory and research in grief to help inform their care of others. Used book in Good Condition.

Used book in Good Condition. Used book in Good Condition.

The American Way of Death Revisited

Used book in Good Condition. With its hard-nosed consumer activism and a satiric vision out of Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One, The American Way of Death Revisited will not fail to inform, delight, and disturb. When first published in 1963, this landmark of investigative journalism became a runaway bestseller and resulted in legislation to protect grieving families from the unscrupulous sales practices of those in "the dismal trade.

Just before her death in 1996, Mitford thoroughly revised and updated her classic study. Used book in Good Condition. Brilliant--hilarious. A must-read for anyone planning to throw a funeral in their lifetime. New york post"Witty and penetrating--it speaks the truth. The washington Post Used book in Good Condition.

The american way of death revisited confronts new trends, inflated cremation costs, including the success of the profession's lobbyists in Washington, the telemarketing of pay-in-advance graves, and the effects of monopolies in a death-care industry now dominated by multinational corporations. Used book in Good Condition.

Only the scathing wit and searching intelligence of Jessica Mitford could turn an exposé of the American funeral industry into a book that is at once deadly serious and side-splittingly funny.

Listening and Caring Skills in Ministry: A Guide for Groups and Leaders

Used book in Good Condition. Used book in Good Condition. Used book in Good Condition. By studying and employing listening skills, church leaders will engage others more compassionately, allowing them to feel that their needs are being met. The secret to leadership and transformation of a group--or of another person--is the quality of the relationship one person has with another.

John savage offers eleven specific and teachable listening skills for improving relationships among those who do ministry in small-group settings or when offering counsel to others. The effective group leader or counselor will be the person who learns how to listen to other people. Used book in Good Condition.

These skills can be used with persons who are terminally ill, going through a divorce, grieving, going through teenage adolescence, inactive at church, seeking a new church, traumatized by catastrophe, in a family with a severely ill person, unemployed, in marriage counseling, or leading a ministry team.

. The skills include paraphrasing, productive questions, perception check, negative inquiry, fogging, expression of feelings and emotions, behavior description, and story listening. The skills are taught through oral exercises and unfailingly helpful examples from actual congregational situations.

Prayer in Pastoral Counseling: Suffering, Healing, and Discernment

Used book in Good Condition. Used book in Good Condition. Edward wimberly utilizes case studies to illustrate how spiritual discernment can be used in pastoral counseling. He shows the value of seeking to discern God's presence in the counseling process to bring healing and wholeness to those who suffer from broken relationships.

Used book in Good Condition. Used book in Good Condition. A discernment model of pastoral/Christian counseling is provided for three groups of people: individuals, couples, and families.

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

Used book in Good Condition. She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn. In la paz, and in tokyo she encounters the japanese kotsuage ceremony, she meets Bolivian natitas cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones’ bones from cremation ashes.

With boundless curiosity and gallows humor, Doughty vividly describes decomposed bodies and investigates the world’s funerary history. 45 illustrations Used book in Good Condition. By comparing customs, she demonstrates that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care for the deceased, and have space to participate in the process.

Exquisitely illustrated by artist landis Blair, From Here to Eternity is an adventure into the morbid unknown, a story about the many fascinating ways people everywhere have confronted the very human challenge of mortality. Used book in Good Condition. From here to eternity is an immersive global journey that introduces compelling, powerful rituals almost entirely unknown in America.

In rural indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his grandfather’s mummified body, which has resided in the family home for two years. Used book in Good Condition. A new york times and los angeles times bestseller The best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with "dignity.

The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present

This book will delight, surprise, and inspire. Used book in Good Condition. Used book in Good Condition. David lehman, anne sexton, and sharon olds, and alluring collection that starts with francis scott key, ravi shankar, walt whitman, including Sarah Manguso, Billy Collins, Charles Simic, Emily Dickinson, encompasses Frank O'Hara, and Hart Crane, Kevin Young, has culled a witty, John Updike, and concludes with the rising stars of a whole new generation of versifiers, titillating, the distinguished editor of the celebrated Best American Poetry series, and Brenda Shaughnessy.

In a section of the book that is sure to prompt discussion and further reading, the living poets write about their favorite works of erotic writing. Used book in Good Condition. These poems range across the varied landscapes of love and sex and desire -- from the intimate parts of the body to the end of an affair, from passion to solitary self-pleasure.

Thoughtful, provocative, moving, and sometimes mirthful, the poems collected in The Best American Erotic Poems celebrate this exuberant sensuality. Used book in Good Condition. There is a deep tradition of eroticism in American poetry. With candor and imagination, they capture the delights and torments of sex and sexuality, love, lust, nudity, and the secret life of fantasy.

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