Hans Stolp and Margarete van den Brink
What happens to us after death? What paths open up? How do we stay connected or even help our loved ones who have died?
Surprisingly, answers to these questions can be found not only in eastern religions, but also in the Christian tradition! In fact they were prevalent in original Christian teachings but, over time, were lost by the Church.
We, Margarete van den Brink and Hans Stolp, bring the remarkable – sometimes controversial – perspective of esoteric Christianity to our reflections on the after life. We offer inspiring near death experiences and stories, and extraordinary insights into the hidden meaning of bible texts.
The authors ask:
Contents
'Use this book as an encouragement to take a new step on your journey into the
sphere of the spirit – the soul's true home. Your friends who are already there
will help you'.
Russel Evans
Hawthorn Press
ISBN 1 903458 31 5
145 pages
£ 12,99.
Can be ordered from:
A Christian Book of the Dead. Accompanying their journey after death.
By Margarete van den Brink and Hans Stolp
A certainty of life is to come in close contact with death. This can be an enormous privilege, but it can also bring many emotions to the surface, no matter how well we feel prepared for it.
Reading 'A Christian Book of the Dead, accompanying their journey after death' was quite a surprise. This slim volume is an extraordinary achievement by Margarete van den Brink and Hans Stolp. They entreat us, in the introduction, to put aside any fear of death we may have, assuring that anyone who can manage to do so will be better equipped to face life here and now.
The authors explain in plain and simple non-jargon the Christian basis of
understanding that we are threefold beings and our body, soul and spirit are all
connected by a 'silver cord'. They go on to describe the journey the soul and
spirit make when someone dies, 'when the silver cord is loosed'; truths deeply
embedded in Christian wisdom but kept secret for millennia, appear. By mapping
out this journey and clearly describing the possibilities and opportunities a
whole new perspective opens up. The message is a solemn but hopeful one - death
is not an end but a whole new beginning which we can take an active role in. And
- what is more - those who have died are longing for the relationship they have
had on earth to go on developing.
We are challenged to develop a whole new set of faculties to achieve this.
The book includes accounts of many near-death or out-of-body experiences, some of them the author's own, where the overriding impression is of light, boundless love and compassion. The interpretation of the parable of the rich and poor man, in which Jesus Christ describes their experiences after death, unfolds the notion of hell and damnation as being simply an individual's experience of the habit-life they have built into their body and soul during life on earth.
It is a good example of what we meet throughout the book: a productive marriage of the Christian tradition with Rudolf Steiner's inspired interpretation of it, brought together by these two authors.
Margarete van den Brink will be known to many for her book 'More Precious Than Light', and her counselling and organisational consultancy work. Here she joins forces with Hans Stolp, a well-known theologian and radio pastor in Holland.
So what does happen to a person when they die? At the time we can be preoccupied with the practicalities of the physical remains and our emotions. But how can we best assist and accompany the person's soul and spirit to help them to take their leave and pass on to the next phase of their journey?
In order to do this we need to understand that journey. It is described in a number of different ways in this book, and a picture emerges of us, after death, perceiving all our actions on earth and their effects on others; both the pain and the joy.
We engage in a process of learning the lessons and yielding the fruits of the recently completed life on earth so we can take on new capacities and spiritual forces for our next incarnation, to make good past mistakes and acquire more knowledge and insight.
The authors concisely describe the whole evolution of humanity and the central role of renewal Christ has played. Indeed it is through Christ that we can gain our consciousness in the spiritual world after death, made possible by his deeds on Golgotha and at Whitsun.
The last section deals with how we can maintain a connection with the dead. They may seem very far away, or even to not be there at all, but we actually inhabit the same etheric, astral and spiritual worlds as they do. To come to a realisation of this can help us in our grieving as well as greatly assisting the dead, who are in need of our thoughts and inspiration as they make their way on their passage towards 'the world of light'.
I feel sure that this idea is a living reality for many, but for some, death can raise some real fears, doubts and anxieties. There is much substance in this book that could form the basis of very helpful discussions.
Tony Langhams' fluid translation means it is easy to forget it was written in Dutch. Perhaps my only misgiving is its title which, I believe, was better in the original.
It is a book you may well want to revisit again and again; it is as much about how to live our lives in a meaningful way as it is about how to make a fruitful connection to those who have died.
Margarete van den Brink declared that it is really meant for the general public, but I believe anyone familiar with anthroposophy will also find it a very valuable road map for a territory we can never be too familiar with.
Patricia Thompson, Oaklands Park, Stroud, UK.