Stages of Grief Paper

Care of Souls provides an account of Christianity's historical practices of soul care through a culmination of his many years of scholarship, teaching and clinical work.

The grieving that individuals experience with death is unique, but the main stages are universal across cultures (Axelrod, 2017). There are five stages of grief. Nicolas Wolterstorff’s story, Lament for a Son, addresses these five stages as he tries to find joy after the loss of his son. The meaning and significance of death in light of the Christian narrative is also addressed in the story. Having a hope of the resurrection can help comfort individuals in situations similar to Wolterstorff (Wolterstorff, 1978).

The foundation of our beliefs can be shaken because of traumatizing experiences. Our religious beliefs can be challenged by the thought of death. Why does death happen to good people? Why does it even happen at all? These are questions that go through the minds of people who face and witness death. In the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio is an attestant to several deaths at an extremely young age. The passing of the people he saw forged an unwelcome path that opened the door to spiritual challenges he never thought to be within the context of his fledgling existence.

First, the religious concept views death as the commencement of a new life (Campione, 2004). Next, the

The book, Lament For a Son, written by Nicholas Wolterstorff talks about his pain and grief after losing his 25-year-old son (Joy, 2009). His son died while on a mountain-climbing expedition. Dr. Wolterstorff has several books published during his career as a philosophical theology professor in Yale Divinity. However, he wrote Lament for a Son with a different journal style since it is a personal thing for him. The book is similar to a journal as he narrates the events that happened before and after his son’s death. The emotions expressed in the book are common among people who lose close relatives. What matters is how a person handles the issue. Kubler-Ross invented the five stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptancethat explain the escalation of grief when stricken by bad news (Axelrod, 2004). The paper looks into the book and its relation to the five stages of grief.

. . . Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away. And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors, not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying

Wolterstorff. He noted death as a constant battle between lamenting and faith (Wolterstorff, 1987). At times he wondered why God allowed his suffering to persist. This made Mr. Wolterstorff feel as though God had forgotten about him. However, through realizing that faith endures, understood that the only way to gain strength was through God. By the means of God, Mr. Wolterstorff regained a sense of joy in life. Not only through finding peace with the death of his son but also by furthering his personal relationship with God. He noticed that during times of death, God suffers alongside him. God did not enjoy the death of Eric anymore than Mr. Wolterstorff does. He felt joy in knowing that God could relate to the loss of a son as God lost his only son when Jesus Christ died upon the

Abstract The author’s perception and treatment of Everyman are that each individual need to prepare for it by repenting, following God, and doing good works. The author’s perception is that at the end of the day one cannot take anything or anyone with them when they die. The only entity someone can take is their actions and how they use the resources that are given to them. Those who put God before everything and perform good works will enjoy eternity with Him, but those who enjoy only the pleasures of life and forget God, will not. The author’s main message throughout the play is to not fearful of death but know that one day everyone will die, so do as much good as one can, repent of one’s sins, and to put God first. Keywords: author, perception, treatment, death The Author’s Perception and Treatment of Death in Everyman In the late fifteenth century, an unknown author wrote a morality play called Everyman. According to Pearson, a morality play during the Medieval period would communicate a moral lesson and make it so simple that both illiterate and well-educated audiences could both understand the lesson (Adu-Gyamfi, 2016). One may believe that the author of Everyman want to communicate to the audience that everyone will receive judgment the actions they commit on Earth. The author’s perception of death is that God is the only one who has the power to control when each individual die, so if one has a relationship with Him one should not be fearful death. The author

This illustrates the interesting idea that death is not simply a medical or legal term, but a cultural abstraction that can be freely interpreted by different

Even though people have been dying since the start of life, we can never get use to the idea of leaving our loved ones behind. Therefore humans choose to disregard death and get pleasure from life, and consequently we tend to stray away from righteousness. Two works; Everyman by an unknown author, and The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer have been written to preach humans toward Christianity-the right way of living. These authors utilize plot to reveal the role of death in understanding life. This is achieve by drawing on the foolishness of mankind, their response to the inevitable death and the effect of death on protagonists which altogether helps the readers understand worldly treasures are temporary.

Next, we will discuss the biblical, theological, and cultural perspectives on the end of life issues. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” When God created everything, he advised us about our time on earth before we inherit the promises in our heavenly home. “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” In today society, many people are dying at a young age for various reasons. One barrier is the change in our dietary. The older generations grew most of their own food. With my generation and afterwards, farm life decrease and more fast food chains increase. Farmers are now using more chemical to make the food grow faster to meet the need of the fast food chains. Also, there has been more man-made food and concepts. These options have impact life leading to more clog arteries, digestive issues, cancer, heart-attack, and others. Another barrier has been increase number in gang related death, suicide attempts and death, and being murder. “While most pastors, theologians and ethicists agreed that it was permissible to

He had some deep concerns about the static of the family; he is aware that they will need counseling, due to his years of study. His arrival at the home, he finds Linda in state of disbelief. Healing can only take place when a person comes to the reality of situation. Without any doubt, Pastor Sharpe knows that every person deals with grief differently. So he allowed each one to share with open on how they were feeling, while he concentrates on being presently active in listening. He accurately responds with warm words, proper voice tone, and good body language. Pastor Sharpe advised each one to come in for some one-on-one pastoral counseling, as well as, some family counseling sessions. He recognizes that Linda is grieving, which is to be expected, because of the circumstances surrounding death of John. This death came as a shock to everyone, even the family. Grief from sudden death can cost the feelings of numbness and shock, making it hard to come to reality of what has transpired. The mind cannot yet accept the overwhelming pain, the reality that the person is really gone. Accepting the full reality of the loss must eventually occur or the healing will be incomplete. (Clinebell, pg.

The definition of death is another issue paramount to this discussion. Robert Rakestraw, professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary in his article on this very subject

​This paper will analyze afterlife in Hinduism and in Catholicism. Afterlife will be considered in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1020-1060 and in Romans 10. Afterlife will also be considered in Bhagavad Gita 2:27, Obayashi page 146 and in Rig Veda 10.14.8. This topic is intriguing because death is a part of life and it is interesting to see the different perspectives of their two religions and of what happens in the afterlife. Besides the perspectives, this topic studies the greatest mystery of life, death which is an uncommon topic since people usually shy away from talking about this because of the emotional implications that it brings to people.

Death comes to all of us eventually sometimes suddenly with little or no warnings, other times that eh end of a long and serious illness. Seemingly, a practitioner of pastoral thanatology faces several distinct challenges in any discussion of the afterlife. However, the way the competence of practitioners pastoral thanatology is offered through the assurance of grace to members within and outside communities is to offer the compassion and love of Jesus Christ. With this said, Grace came through Jesus, which is external evidence to those who believed as accomplished on behalf by Jesus. Thanatology competence enables pastoral responsibilities through counseling to those families who have been separated from loved ones by death and terminal ill