A sabbatical, graciously provided by the church where I serve, has given me the chance to catch up on many things that our slightly crazy recent existence has precluded. And one of these things, I am pleased to say, is to finish Mark Meynell’s wonderful recent book, Life After Life.
(Full disclosure – Mark very kindly sent me a copy of the book to bless my ministry; and the links in this review will earn me a small commission on Amazon. Nevertheless, I trust that neither of these things will stop me from providing an honest review of the book.)
I first came across Mark’s writings as a relatively young Christian when I read the original edition of his wonderful Cross Examined – which was a great help to a new believer. Mark had, and still has, a wonderful style which makes reading his books a pleasure.
Life After Life in one sense picks up where Cross Examined left off – and is an exploration of the implications of Jesus’ resurrection for believers today. It has something of the feel of a Bible overview as it examines in turn: the Old Testament background to the New Testament hope of life after death; the way in which Jesus fulfils these hopes/expectations; and finally what this new life might look like.
Mark’s wide experience as a Bible teacher means that the book, though relatively short, is packed with scriptural insight. It is littered with quotations from the whole of the Bible on which he invariably sheds helpful light.
His own struggles with depression (which he has written about so candidly and helpfully in When Darkness Seems my Closest Friend) ensures that he takes seriously the questions and doubts of real people and the challenges of living in a broken world, while at the same time holding out the genuine (not trite) hope which is ours in Christ.
I read the book in spurts over quite a long period, which makes it difficult for me to do justice to the whole book at the time of writing. But for me one of the standout chapters was chapter 8. Titled ‘Practising the Presence’, this was the best succinct yet insightful introduction to the book of Revelation that I have read. It is wisely and pastorally applied, with lovely insightful details about the text (and other texts) which were a great blessing.
Mark’s interests are wide-ranging and I love the way he weaves in insights from art and literature and cinema to help illustrate and elucidate his meaning. He has a colourful and imaginative way of illustrating points e.g. in describing the tension between our earthly existence and the (spiritual) reality that believers are simultaneously raised with Christ he writes, “The tension between these two realities is what brings frustration and even pain, rather like doing the splits in gymnastics.” (p.131).
There’s a useful appendix which provides a brief summary of some of the key lines of evidence for the resurrection on which this book hinges. And each chapter has a couple of questions to help you reflect on the content of the chapter. I found these useful for trying to cement the key ideas of the chapter – and was pleased that they were limited to two questions and so didn’t feel overwhelming!
All in all, I think this would be an encouraging read for any Christian, and could also help a pastor who was planning a series on this sometimes-neglected area of doctrine. In the year since it was published and I received my copy I hope that it has already been a great blessing to God’s people. And I’m sure that it will continue to be so.