Science of life after death

Abstract

draws us more deeply into communion with God. Here I am reminded of Martin Buber’s insight that all ‘I-thou’ encounters are grounded in our relationship to the Absolute Thou. I also appreciated very much the insightful way in which Kinghorn and Hauerwas relate gentleness to Jesus, L’Arche, and Swinton himself. I especially appreciated this reflection from the authors: ‘John Swinton’s focus on the particularity of human lived experience is ... deeply formative and instructive for us. One cannot be gentle in general; one is always gentle with someone, in a particular time and place’ (p. 275, original emphasis). Those of us who have been privileged to be the ‘someone’ in the gentle presence of John Swinton, know exactly what is meant here. The last chapter in this section, and therefore in this volume, takes us back to the theme Doug Gay pursued quite early in the book – viz. worship. Volpe notes that while peace is not an overt theme in Swinton’s writing – it certainly is not prominent in the way that themes such as a humanised life, friendship, vulnerability, belonging, discipleship, and worship are – the way that John lives, works, and writes is profoundly irenic. I suspect that John is very pleased with her insight that Jesus – the one who embodied, facilitated, and preached peace – is the spiritual source for all those committed to peace in personal, communal, and international relations.