The Also Life

In this fine book, Crafton (Jesus Wept) creates an "extended meditation" about life after death%E2%80%94not the afterlife, but the "also life." She covers human longing, sorrow, and hope, considering where those profound feelings "meet and become the energy of God." To do this, she focuses on two separate types of time: chronos (earthly duration%E2%80%94the timeline of history class) and kairos (God's time). To Crafton, time after death amends life, rather than punishing or rewarding. Crafton backs up her thinking with science, poetry, fiction, and mysticism; she mines her own experience as an Episcopal priest and as a mother mourning the loss of a prematurely born child. She quotes the words of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dorothee Soelle, the Westboro Baptist Church, and Albert Einstein; points out the artistry of Bernini and Caraciollo; poses sterling analogies; and asks leading questions. Crafton imagines conversations and jaws with her reader in a friendly fashion, intent on making accessible those thoughts that can seem too deep for words. This is a short but enduring work. (Oct.)