Fiction about illness and death of children. Do children need books about death? Kay Jamieson. Restless mind. My victory over bipolar disorder
Just yesterday, for once, I turned on the TV and saw a program about children's books. The topic was just about children's books about death. The authors of the program recommend reading such books with your child, explaining to him the meaning of what is written. We recommended several for different age categories.
Below are excerpts from the book “The Kindest in the World” by Ulf Nilsson, illustrations by Eva Erikson.
The story begins with the fact that one day the girl Esther finds a dead bumblebee on the windowsill and decides to bury it. Esther Friend (on whose behalf the story is told) and her younger brother Putte help. Since Putte is very small, the older guys explain to him what death is
After the bumblebee's funeral, the girl decides that the guys should bury all the dead animals, birds, insects in the forest...
Having buried many animals during the story, Esther comes to the conclusion:
At the end of the book, the burial ceremony of a thrush named Little Papa is described (the children gave names to all the little animals)
Maria Poryadina about this book:
Children do not even think of profaning the sacred - mocking sacred rites, mocking the grief of human loss, parodying the solemn rite of burial. They simply take death into the game - just as naturally as they take everything else into the game: cooking dinner, a wedding, buying apples in a store. They play funerals as seriously as they play “visiting” or “playing daughters and mothers” - and no adult, if he is reasonable, would scold children for such a game.
If an adult is reasonable, this clarification is necessary. A reasonable person, after reading the book, will see that there is nothing dangerous or frightening in it. For children it is vital, but for adults, I must admit, it is terribly funny.
But the book may shock a person who is not very intelligent: there are too many dead...
After all, Swedish teachers - and Swedish children - are more free. They are not afraid of “forbidden” topics and “unusual” actions: they simply do not focus their attention on them.
Our children - here in Russia - would get the first number: both for the fact that they “touch all sorts of nasty things”, and for the fact that they took a suitcase and a blanket without asking, and for the process itself - for playing with something something unusual, that is, from the point of view of an adult reinsurer, indecent.
But for the Swedes everything is fine.
It is no coincidence that the Swedish Astrid Lindgren Foundation is taking the exhibition “I have the right to play” around the world. It is no coincidence that Lindgren herself argued that you can always play anything. “How could we not play to death!” - she was surprised, no longer young, remembering her free childhood in the vicinity of the Nes farm. Everything was a game - and everything became life that goes on.
The publishers intend the book for family reading, and this is correct, because “The Kindest in the World” is a completely two-fold thing. Children understand it as an ordinary story from the lives of their peers, absolutely traditional; adults in this story seem to have a certain flavor of “absurd dramaturgy”, which transfers a simple plot into the area of “eternal questions” about the place and purpose of man in existence.
The book turned out to be very life-affirming: after all, the children in it are literally playing with death! And since death can become a game, then it is not scary. That is, like any other game, it can be postponed indefinitely. And live happily ever after.
Depiction of illness in works of art
Zhuneva M.
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Saratov State Medical University named after. IN AND. Razumovsky Ministry of Health of Russia
Department of Philosophy, Humanities and Psychology
Scientific supervisor - Associate Professor A.A. Zhivaikina
The theme of illness is reflected in many forms of art. This includes literature, painting, sculpture, and cinema. Let's look at examples of how illness is depicted in literary works.
The most common disease found on the pages of fiction is tuberculosis. More recently, until the 20-30s of the twentieth century, this disease, then called “consumption,” was considered incurable. Infection with tuberculosis occurs through airborne droplets, and, therefore, it was quite easy to become infected with it. Symptoms of the disease: prolonged painful cough, hemoptysis, fever, thinness and, as a result, the slow decline of a person in the prime of life.
One of the works that depicts this disease is the novel “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky, in which Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova suffered from tuberculosis: “Then the laughter again turned into an unbearable cough that lasted five minutes. There was some blood left on the handkerchief, drops of sweat appeared on the forehead.”
Nikolai Levin, one of the heroes of the novel “Anna Karenina” by L.N., had consumption. Tolstoy: “The brother lay down and either slept or did not sleep, but, like a sick person, he tossed and turned, coughed and, when he could not clear his throat, grumbled something.”
Another literary hero who suffered from tuberculosis is Kovrin from the story by A.P. Chekhov’s “The Black Monk”: “His throat was bleeding. He spat blood, but it happened twice a month that it flowed profusely, and then he became extremely weak and fell into a drowsy state.”
The depiction of the disease that writers resorted to in their works differs little from the clinical picture described in the specialized medical literature, since the disease has clear, specific symptoms.
Leprosy (obsolete “leprosy”) is a terrible disease caused by mycobacteria related to tuberculosis, and also appears in some literary works. The main symptom of the disease is severe damage to the skin, which is why patients with leprosy were feared and persecuted. The fear of this disease was so great that those suffering from this disease were actually doomed to a painful death in absolute solitude. An example of a work that tells about the difficult life in a colony of leprosy patients is G. Shilin’s novel “Lepers.”
Today, leprosy is no longer considered an incurable disease and is successfully treated with antibiotics; it is also known that leprosy cannot be contracted through simple contact: it is transmitted only through close contact through discharge from the mouth and nose.
Epilepsy is often found in works of art. This is a chronic neurological disease characterized by the sudden onset of seizures. F.M. often depicted this disease in his works. Dostoevsky, which is not surprising: the writer himself suffered from this illness. The most striking epileptic character is Prince Myshkin from the novel “Idiom”. And the epilepsy of Makar Nagulny, the hero of the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned” by M.A. Sholokhov, is a consequence of shell shock and gas poisoning in the war.
In the 19th century, it was believed that epilepsy leads to an inevitable decline in intelligence; evidence of this can be found even in the description of Prince Myshkin; he was considered eccentric: “His eyes were large, blue and intent; in their gaze there was something quiet, but heavy, something full of that strange expression by which some guess at first glance that a subject is suffering from epilepsy.” It has now been proven that deterioration of cognitive functions in this disease occurs quite rarely.
The diagnoses of the heroes, which were mentioned earlier, are beyond doubt, but it is not always possible to clearly say what kind of disease it is based on the symptoms of the disease described by the author. For example, for a long time, doctors-readers could not come to a consensus in diagnosing the main character of the story “Living Relics” by I.S. Turgenev: “The head is completely dry, one-color, bronze, like a knife blade; You can barely see your lips, only your teeth and eyes turn white, and from under your scarf, thin strands of yellow hair spill out onto your forehead. Near the chin, on the fold of the blanket, two tiny hands, also bronze in color, are moving, slowly moving their fingers, like chopsticks.”
It was previously believed that Lukerya suffered from systemic adrenal insufficiency (later known as Addison's disease), which caused the bronze coloration of the skin and the inability to move. But many doctors dispute this opinion. For example, Dr. E.M. Tareev and N.G. Gusev believe that the girl was sick with scleroderma; Professor Sigidin also favors this diagnosis and completely excludes Addison's disease (
The coffin rolls onto the stage
From time to time I have to participate in discussions on the topic “Culture is dying” or “What have we come to! What started to be written for children!” Recently, at one of the seminars for Moscow librarians, I heard the following story. “My daughter-in-law,” a seminar participant angrily narrated, “took the child to the theater. In a proven, it would seem, musical theater of Natalia Sats. So there, right in front of the children, Cipollino was put alive in a fire to roast. And then he hobbled on his burnt stumps! Do you think the horrors are over? In the second part, a real coffin was rolled onto the stage. The coffin is in a children's play! What can you call this?!”
The listener hoped that I would support her indignation. But I decided to clarify some details. After all, if in the story one of the characters was shoved into the hearth, then it was unlikely to be Cipollino. Most likely - Pinocchio. And if, in addition to the “adventure with fire,” a coffin appeared on the stage, then it’s not even Pinocchio, but Pinocchio. And what can you do if this same Pinocchio in the fairy tale spends a good part of the plot time in the cemetery, at the grave of the Fairy with blue hair. He cries there, repents, and purifies his soul. And it is no coincidence that this Fairy’s hair is blue: this is a sign of her original involvement in the “other world”, from where Pinocchio receives various “signals”.
Pinocchio and this whole story were invented not today, but in the middle of the 19th century. And the Russian public first became acquainted with him in 1906, and on the pages of the most popular children’s and moral magazine, “Dushevnoye Slovo.” That is, the story about the wooden boy cannot be attributed to modern symptoms of the death of culture. And if they decided to stage it today, then on the part of the director this is a completely commendable appeal to the imperishable world classic.
And how does the episode with the appearance of the coffin on the stage of the N. Sats Theater differ from the classic production of Maeterlinck’s “The Blue Bird,” where children generally wander among long-dead relatives? And they calmly remember who died when. Moreover, we are talking not only about grandparents, but also about deceased babies.
So maybe the problem is not in the performance itself, but in the expectations of the viewer? And not a child, but an adult? For some reason, the adult was expecting something different, wanted something different, was tuning in to something else. But it’s unlikely that he wasn’t told the name of the play. However, the adult did not “go into detail” and find out on what work the play was based. And if he expected to see the triumphal march of the onion revolution (he confused someone with something), and he was shown a rather painful and even gloomy path to acquiring the “human form,” then this is a problem of a specific adult (specific adults), and not of modern culture generally.
The theme of death in Russian and Soviet literature, or a glitch in the program
It must be said that the coffin, near which Pinocchio repented, was far from the first literary coffin to appear in the circle of children's Russian-language reading. (As already mentioned, Carlo Collodi’s fairy tale, translated into Russian, was published in 1906). The first, after all, was the “crystal coffin in a sad mountain,” in which Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin arranged for a young princess who was poisoned by an apple. Will anyone dare to throw a stone at this coffin? Even taking into account the fact that Prince Elisha is, in fact, kissing a corpse? Well, okay, to put it mildly: a dead beauty. He doesn’t know that the princess is alive.
In general, the 19th century had a completely different attitude towards death - including in works addressed to children - than Soviet literature of the 20th century. Great classical writers (primarily Leo Tolstoy) most carefully studied the psychology of the dying state of an individual person, the psychological side of dying and attitudes towards the death of others. And not only in such works as “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” or “Three Deaths,” but also, for example, in the “elementary” story “The Lion and the Dog,” which with brilliant directness tells the child: “Love and death are always together.” . In general, contact with death in classical works of the 19th century from children's reading turns out to be a formative, “soul-forming” experience. Isn't that the main theme of "The Gutta Percha Boy"? Or "Children of the Dungeon"?
But in that In great literature, the theme of contact with death and reflection on death organically grew out of the Christian worldview. This theme did not contradict the theme of life and even a joyful life - it complemented it and made it deeper. It is no coincidence that “Children of the Dungeon” ends with a description of “leisure time in the cemetery”: the narrator narrates how he and his sister go to the grave of the girl from the “dungeon” and indulge there light dreams and thoughts.
Soviet children's literature approached the topic of death completely differently. She only recognized talk about heroic death, about death “in the name of...” (in the name of the victory of the proletarian revolution or in the name of the Soviet state). Heroic death turned out to be something like a reward, which, paradoxically, one should even strive for - because nothing “more beautiful” can be imagined. All other “types” of death (death in peacetime and old age) belonged to private human life and therefore were considered not worthy of conversation. Fear of death (and any other fear) was considered a low feeling. It could not be discovered, it could not be discussed. It had to be hidden and suppressed: “I’m not afraid of injections, if necessary, I’ll inject myself!” (Probably today this sounds more than ambiguous, but this is a quote. I can’t even count how many times I heard this perky “humorous” song in children’s radio programs.) One should laugh at those who are afraid.
We are now apparently experiencing an “all programs failure.” On the one hand, we insist on “churching” children, on the other, we are indignant about books that are related to the topic of death. And we do this not for any complex reasons, but only because in our minds a child and death are incompatible. At the same time, we strangely forget that the main church symbol is the crucifix, depicting a sufferer at the moment of death.
A book about it
Probably everyone who raises children has encountered a child’s question: “Am I going to die?”, or a child’s reaction to the death of a pet or some other animal. We are faced with childish confusion, a surge of fear, a lack of understanding of what is happening - and almost never can find the right words and a convincing explanation.
This situation is very accurately described in Friede Amelie’s book “Is Grandfather in a Suit?”
Five-year-old Bruno's grandfather, whom the boy loved very much, dies. Bruno turns out to be a witness and participant in the funeral. Due to his age, he cannot yet join in the collective grief, and besides, all adults behave differently and not very “consistently”, from the child’s point of view. The meaning of the ritual side eludes him. Bruno notes “oddities” in the behavior of adults. He asks them a question: “Where did grandfather go?” The answer “died” does not explain anything. And what “died” means, every adult explains in his own way. The main thing that breaks a child’s mind is the message that “grandfather is no more.” The little boy can only agree that his grandfather is not “here.” But how can he be both “in the earth” and “in heaven” at the same time? This is all so inconsistent with the usual world order that it causes shock. And the whole book is dedicated to how a child tries to integrate this experience into his life, how he gets used to it and how he builds a new relationship with his grandfather - with his image.
In essence, “And Grandfather in a Suit” is a psychologically accurate diary of grief. Grief is also a psychological state, and, like any state, it is studied and described in science. First of all, so that we can help people experiencing grief. And, no matter how strange it may sound, grief has its own patterns. A person experiencing grief goes through different stages: disbelief in what is happening, an attempt to deny it; an acute process of rejection, even with accusations of the deceased (“How dare you leave me?!”), humility in the face of what happened; developing a new attitude towards life (you have to give up some habits, learn to do on your own what you previously did with the deceased); the formation of a new image of the departed person, - etc.
In manuals for practical psychologists, all this is described, including the possible actions of psychologists in relation to a person experiencing grief at each stage of grief.
But such experiences did not exist in children's fiction. And Amelie Fried's book is a kind of discovery.
And naturally, this book remained beyond the attention of not only parents, but also librarians. More precisely, they rejected it: “How can death be the only content of a children’s book?” What pleasure can there be in reading such a work?
So reading doesn’t always have to be pleasant. Reading is a kind of self-experiment: can you “communicate” with this author? Can you “support” the conversation he started? Support with your attention.
But no. The coffin on the “stage” contradicts our image of a happy, serene childhood. Although this image has very little correlation with reality and exists exclusively in our heads. And there's nothing you can do about it. If an adult himself has not matured enough to talk about this complex topic, he cannot be forced to read. His internal protest will destroy any possible effect from communicating with the book.
Questions and answers
Meanwhile, if questions arise, they do not concern the legitimacy of the topic, but the “place and time”: when, at what age and in what circumstances is it better to read this book to a child. For some reason, it immediately seems that you need to read it with the child, read it out loud to him: reading aloud to a child is always a shared experience. And divided means portable.
It is wrong to think that such books are read “on occasion.” When someone in a child dies, then we read about death.
It's just the opposite. Books that deal with the topic of death are not “painkillers.” It's like starting hardening procedures at the time of a serious illness. You need to harden yourself in a healthy state. But when a child is sick, something fundamentally different is required: peace, warmth, lack of tension, the opportunity to be distracted. As Japanese journalist Kimiko Matsui said, children who survived the tragedy associated with the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, if they read anything after a while, it was fantasy - such books “led away” from terrible realities and real losses.
It’s another matter if a child has the question “Am I going to die?” But here, too, not everything is so simple.
I think many people remember from their own childhood experience how this question first overtakes you, how it pierces your whole being: this, in a sense, is a revolution in your worldview.
When I (I think I was about six years old) came to my father with this question, he - as befits an adult of his generation - burst into laughter. He fell into a chair, covered himself with a newspaper and laughed for a long, long time. And then, unable to fully control himself, he squeezed out: “Yes!”
So what will happen? - I tried my best to imagine how it could be.
What will happen?
What will happen instead of me? (Well, indeed: matter does not disappear anywhere and is not formed again, but only passes from one state to another.)
What will happen? The flower will grow.
You can't imagine how I calmed down. Moreover, I experienced a feeling similar to happiness. The flower I was destined to turn into suited me perfectly. It was most organically integrated into pictures of a world in which magical apple trees grew from the bones of slaughtered cows, Ivan Tsarevich cut into pieces could be glued together with living water, a frog turned out to be a princess - a world where the boundaries between man and the rest of the living world were very conditional, and objects and animals had the ability to transform into each other. I dare say that any child, even if he grows up in a family professing a monotheistic religion, goes through a “pagan” stage of identity with the world - just as an embryo goes through the stage of a creature with gills. This is evidenced, first of all, by his attitude towards toys and his ability to play.
And at this stage, at this age, he does not need a consistently presented natural science theory of dying. Or, in other words, the questions about death that children of four to six years old ask do not yet require a “complete” adult answer. It seems so to me.
This is not about lying to a child. There is no need to convince him that a cat that was run over by a car will come to life somewhere “out there.” But the idea that “matter does not disappear anywhere and does not appear again, but only passes from one state to another” turns out to be soul-saving in relation to a small child.
Therefore, the possibility of adequate reading, implying understanding, is associated not only with the question “Am I going to die?” (which most often occurs in five-year-old children, but can occur earlier; development is a purely individual thing), and also with the experience of reflection. At least minimal. With experience in recording your feelings and thoughts. And this presupposes a certain level of developed critical thinking, the ability to “look at yourself from the outside.” In addition, the child’s ability to translate emotional interest into a cognitive plane is very important here. Something worries him, worries him - and he begins to be “interested” in it. (Some fears and problems, for example, encourage children to become interested in extinct monsters. But this does not mean that they will all become paleontologists when they grow up.)
The ability to reflect, the ability to “identify” one’s feelings and thoughts begins to form by the beginning of schooling (in fact, these are the most important indicators of school readiness).
Therefore, apparently, it is possible to introduce children to a book about the boy Bruno and his experiences after seven or eight years. But this book will not lose its relevance for children of early adolescence. It’s interesting to talk to them about grief and personal experience.
Moreover, during early puberty, children experience relapses associated with the question “Am I going to die?”
The ending follows.
Marina Aromstam
More about the theme of death in children's books and about the book"And grandpa is in a suit" can be read in the article
Victory over death and hell is what Christ accomplished. “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century” - this is our hope and goal, and not at all “waiting in horror for the coming of the Antichrist,” as is often the case now. The fact that jubilation and hope gave way to fear signals something very bad in the history of Christianity.
Implicitly, the fear of the Antichrist correlates with the phantasm of the living dead - one of the main symbolic figures of our time. Our era, judging by the media, in principle does not accept the Christian hope of the resurrection of the dead. She is only capable of reviving the archaic fear of the dead.
Victory over death, hope for the resurrection of the dead - this is central to Christianity.
A small book (recording of four lectures) about probably the main thing in Christianity - victory over death. “What does this mean for us - those who will die anyway?” - the main question of Father Alexander. But not the only one.
Father Alexander Schmemann expresses important thoughts in “The Liturgy of Death” about the relationship between Christianity and secularism, because the second part of the book’s title is “modern culture.” One of these thoughts - “there is a consumer only in Christianity” - is precise, sharp, and, unfortunately, not expanded.
Secularism is a product of Christendom. Secular attitude towards death - “we will not notice it; it doesn't make sense." How could a world brought up on “Christ is risen from the dead” come to such an understanding? Christianity, the religion of the resurrection of the dead and the aspirations of the future century, at a certain stage “forgot” the eschatological dimension. “Victory over death”, hope in the Kingdom “fell out” of real life.
Why this happened and what to do about it - says Fr. Alexander.
A poignant book about the death of a loved one, in some places approaching the boldness of Job. Lewis wrote these diaries after the death of his wife Joy. Perhaps “The Pain of Loss” is Lewis’s toughest book: why does God give people happiness and then cruelly deprive them of it?
Joy Davidman (1915–1960; her photo on the cover) was a Jewish American writer and a member of the American Communist Party. She first wrote to Lewis to argue with his arguments for the faith. Joy was sick with cancer: they got married, confident of her imminent death. However, Joy went into remission. At the same time, Lewis began to experience severe pain: he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Lewis was sure that with his suffering he atoned for the suffering of his wife. However, two years later the disease returned to Joy and she died. Three years later, Lewis himself died.
Reflecting on these events, Lewis asks: " Is it reasonable to believe that God is cruel? Can He really be so cruel? What, is He a cosmic sadist, an evil cretin?"Lewis takes us through all the stages of despair and horror before the nightmare of our world and in the end it seems to see the light... "The Pain of Loss" is a deep and honest reflection (or cry?) about joy and suffering, love and family, death and the world's meaninglessness , about honesty and self-deception, religion and God. In "The Pain of Loss" there is no rational argumentation typical of Lewis: only desperate standing before the Lord.
Another book written by a husband who lost his wife. In addition, its author served as a cemetery priest.
“No... Whatever you say to the heart, it is akin to grieving the loss of loved ones; No matter how you hold back your tears, they involuntarily flow in a stream over the grave in which the ashes that are kindred and precious to us are hidden.
He hears from everywhere: “don’t cry, don’t be cowardly.” But these exclamations are not a band-aid on wounds, but often inflict new wounds on the heart. - “Don’t be cowardly.” But who will say that Abraham was faint-hearted, and he also wept and wept for his wife Sarah?
« All of them [the deceased], of course, are alive - but they live a different life, not the one you and I live now, but the life to which we will come in due time, and everyone will come sooner or later. Therefore, the question of that other life, which is eternal life and which we celebrate by celebrating Easter - the Resurrection of Christ, is especially close to us, it concerns not just our mind, but, perhaps, concerns our heart to a greater extent“- writes Osipov in “The Afterlife of the Soul”.
“The Afterlife of the Soul” by Osipov is a short and simple presentation of Orthodox teaching about life after death.
« But who doomed me to the eternal torment of hell, in which, like a drop in the ocean, my poor earthly life dissolves? Who, with his mighty curse, gave me into the slavery of an irresistible necessity? Is it God who mercifully created me? There is nothing to say: good is mercy, good is Divine love! - Create me without even asking whether I want it, and then doom me to the eternal torment of meaningless decay!“- boldly, like Job, Karsavin asks in “Poem about Death”.
In this work, Karsavin expressed his innermost thoughts. Like “St. Petersburg Nights,” “Poem about Death” has an artistic form and is addressed to Karsavin’s beloved, Elena Cheslavovna Skrzhinskaya. Her name in the “Poem on Death” is rendered by the Lithuanian diminutive “Elenite”.
In one of the letters to Skrzhinskaya (dated January 1, 1948), Karsavin writes “ It was you who connected metaphysics in me with my biography and life in general“, and further regarding “Poem about Death”: “ For me, this little book is the most complete expression of my metaphysics, which coincided with my life, which coincided with my love.».
« A Jewish woman was burned at the stake. - The executioner fastens her to the post with a chain. And she asks: has she become like this, is it convenient for him... Why should she care about the executioner’s device? Or is he more likely to get the job done this way? Or is he - fate itself, inexorable, soulless - still the last person? “He won’t answer anything and, probably, won’t even feel anything.” But perhaps something is stirring in his soul, responding to her gentle question; and his hand trembles for a moment; and a person’s compassion, unknown to himself, unknown to anyone, will, as it were, ease her mortal torment. But the torment is still ahead, unbearable, endless. And until the last moment - already alone, completely alone - she will scream and writhe, but will not call for death: death itself will come, if only... it comes».
« My mortal melancholy does not pass and will not pass, but will come stronger, unbearable. I don’t go crazy because of it, I don’t die; and I will not die: I am doomed to immortality. My torment is greater than that from which people die and go crazy. If you die, your pain will not go with you; If you go crazy, you won’t know about yourself or her. Here there is no end or outcome; yes and there is no beginning - lost».
This book is made up of various speeches, lectures, sermons (before confession, at the funeral service, etc.) by Father Alexander, united by the theme of life and death.
“Should Christians, as Christians, necessarily believe in the immortality of the human soul? And what does immortality really mean in the space of Christian thought? Such questions only seem rhetorical. Etienne Gilson, in his Gifford Lectures, found it necessary to make the following astonishing statement: “ In general,” he said, “Christianity without immortality is quite meaningful, and the proof of this is that at first it was conceptualized this way. Christianity is truly meaningless without the resurrection of man».
This book covers the main problem of human life - death. “The Mystery of Death” examines its unsolvability by “external” philosophy and the Christian vision of death. The book widely presents the opinion of the Holy Fathers on this topic.
In fact, the entire “Sacrament of Death” is an attempt to once again give the only answer to death for the Church - an explication of the story of the Passion of Christ. Vassiliadis writes: “X Christ had to die in order to bequeath to humanity the fullness of life. This was not the need of the world. It was the need for Divine love, the need for Divine order. This mystery is impossible for us to comprehend. Why did true life have to be revealed through the death of the One Who is the Resurrection and Life? (John 14:6). The only answer is that salvation had to be a victory over death, over human mortality».
Perhaps the best book about the post-mortem state of mind. The weight, thoroughness and lack of myth-making fantasies reveal the author as a doctor. Thus, the combination of a scientist and a Christian in one person gives Kalinovsky’s presentation the necessary harmony and versatility.
The theme of “transition” is the life of the soul after physical death. The testimonies of people who experienced clinical death and returned “back” either spontaneously, or, in most cases, after resuscitation, experiences before death, during a serious illness, are analyzed.
Anthony of Sourozh was both a surgeon and a shepherd. Therefore, like no one else, he could speak fully about life, illness and death. Anthony of Sourozh said that in his approach to these issues he “cannot separate within himself a person, a Christian, a bishop and a doctor.”
« The being that has received mind and reason is a person, and not a soul in itself; therefore, man must always remain and consist of soul and body; and it is impossible for him to remain like this unless he is resurrected. For if there is no resurrection, then the nature of men as men will not remain“- Athenagoras teaches about the bodily-spiritual unity of man in his essay “On the Resurrection of the Dead” - one of the first (and, moreover, the best!) texts on this topic.
« [The Apostle Paul] deals a mortal blow to those who humiliate the physical nature and reproach our flesh. The meaning of his words is as follows. It is not the flesh, as he says, that we want to lay off, but corruption; not the body, but death. The other is the body and the other is death; the other is the body and the other is corruption. Neither the body is corruption, nor is corruption the body. True, the body is perishable, but it is not corruption. The body is mortal, but it is not death. The body was the work of God, and corruption and death were introduced by sin. So, I want, he says, to remove from myself what is alien, not mine. And what is alien is not the body, but corruption and death attached to it"- Christians fight death for the flesh. This is what John Chrysostom teaches in his Discourse on the Resurrection of the Dead.
Conversations about the death of one of the best Russian preachers - Bishop-philosopher Innocent of Kherson.
Collection of letters of Theophan the Recluse. Illness and death are the fate of every person and one of the most tragic issues of theology. Of course, in “Illness and Death” there is no systematic teaching of Theophan the Recluse. But there is a lot of specific advice and instructions for specific life situations. And behind this multitude one can discern a certain unified vision of these issues by Saint Theophan.
Here are a few headings from “Sickness and Death,” taken at random, perhaps they will give some idea of the teachings of Theophan the Recluse: “Illness is the work of God’s Wisdom,” “Serving the sick is serving Christ,” “Illnesses from God for our salvation,” “We must prepare for the afterlife judgment”, “The afterlife share of the dead”, “How to justify yourself at the Last Judgment?”
“Death is a great mystery. She is the birth of a person from earthly temporary life into eternity. When performing the mortal sacrament, we lay aside our gross shell - the body and as a spiritual being, subtle, ethereal, we pass into another world, into the abode of creatures similar to the soul. This world is inaccessible to the gross organs of the body, through which, during our stay on earth, feelings operate, which, however, belong to the soul itself. The soul that leaves the body is invisible and inaccessible to us, like other objects of the invisible world. We see only when performing mortal mysteries the breathlessness, the sudden lifelessness of the body; then it begins to decompose, and we hasten to hide it in the ground; there it becomes a victim of corruption, worms, oblivion. So countless generations of people died out and were forgotten. What happened and is happening to the soul that has left the body? This remains unknown to us, given our own means of knowledge.
One of the most popular texts of “folk” Orthodoxy of the Middle Ages. The “Life” consists of three different texts written by Vasily’s student Gregory Mnich: the Life itself (the text offered here, unfortunately, is more of a condensed retelling), and two visions on eschatological themes - the famous “Ordeal of Theodora” (Vasil’s student) and “ Vision of the Last Judgment" - "private" and "general" eschatology, respectively. The bright, expressive eschatology of “The Life of Basil the New” had a huge influence on the consciousness and culture of the Middle Ages.
Vasily Novy is a hermit who accidentally fell under the suspicion of the authorities and suffered innocently. The text wonderfully describes the saint's humility and meekness under torture: the saint remains silent, to his own detriment - he does not want to participate in any way in all this. He miraculously escapes and remains to live in Constantinople as a vagabond. After his release, Vasily criticizes the authorities, heals, instructs disciples, and plays the fool. Through his prayers, Gregory is visited by visions that make up the main body of the text.
“The Ordeal of Theodora,” like “The Vision of the Last Judgment,” should in no case be perceived as dogmatic texts. These are apocrypha, fiction, “spiritual novels” - as Kazansky puts it - symbols filled with deep meaning, but in no case a “report”. Here are a few comments from theologians on this matter. Seraphim (Rose): " Even a baby can understand that descriptions of ordeals cannot be taken literally."; St. Nicodemus Svyatogorets: “ Those who babbled that the souls of the dead righteous and sinners are found on earth for forty days and visit the places where they lived” sow prejudices and myths. For such statements are “incredible and no one should accept them as truth.”"; A. Kuraev (from whose note we took the above quotes): “ the text [of the Life] is incorrect because it leaves no room for God’s Judgment. The Savior said that “the Father handed over all the judgment to the Son,” but in this book the whole judgment is carried out by demons" Let us cite the words of A.I. Osipov: “ The ordeals... for all the simplicity of their earthly depiction in Orthodox hagiographic literature, have a deep spiritual, heavenly meaning. ...This is a trial of conscience and a test of the spiritual state of the soul in the face of God’s love, on the one hand, and devilish passionate temptations, on the other».
One of the most brilliant stories in world literature. Before death, the average person discovers the emptiness of his life, and at the same time some new reality is revealed to him...
Social and philosophical fiction with a detective plot. Most residents voluntarily fell into suspended animation, believing in the promises of future immortality. The novel tells about the investigation into the abuses of the Center for suspended animation. Protesters against potential immortality come from Christian views on death and immortality. It’s remarkable how Simak shows the faith of modern people:
“...He probably simply does not exist, and I made a mistake in choosing the path, calling on a non-existent and never-existent God. Or maybe I called by the wrong name...
... “But they talk,” the man grinned, “about eternal life.” That you don't have to die. What use is God then? Why then have any other life?...
...And why should she, Mona Campbell, alone search for an answer that only God can give - if he exists?..."
Perhaps this feature - the combination of sadness, uncertainty, faith, despair - is the most attractive in the novel. Its main theme, as is already clear, is the social and existential position of man before the possibility of changing his biological nature.
“Unforgettable. Anglo-American tragedy" is a black tragicomedy about the modern (here - American) attitude towards death: commercialized, not feeling the mystery in it, wanting to close their eyes, hungry for comfort - and nothing more; the smiling corpse of the “unforgettable.” In fact, “Unforgettable” is a Christian satire on the godless death industry.
George MacDonald - Scottish novelist and poet, priest. He can be called the founder of fantasy. His prose received the highest praise from Auden, Chesterton, Tolkien, and Lewis.
"The Gift of the Christ Child" is a Christmas story, but not Dickensian at all. A tragic story of how death brought a family together; about how the Lord is present in our lives. In essence, the story is that true joy is known only after the Cross - resurrected.
A collection of texts by Russian philosophers, theologians and writers about death: Radishchev, Dostoevsky, Solovyov, Fedorov, Tolstoy, Rozanov, E. Trubetskoy, Berdyaev, Bakhtin, Shestov, Florovsky, N. Lossky, Fedotov, Karsavin, Druskin, Bunin, Bulgakov, etc. .
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Death is an integral part of life, and any child sooner or later learns about its existence. This usually happens when the baby sees a dead bird, mouse or other animal for the first time in his life. It also happens that he receives his first knowledge about death under more tragic circumstances, for example, when a family member dies or is killed. It is quite expected that this question, so frightening for adults, will be asked: What happened? Why does grandma (dad, aunt, cat, dog) lie motionless and not talk?
Even very young children are able to distinguish living from non-living and a dream from something more frightening. Usually, out of fear of traumatizing the child’s psyche, parents try to avoid the topic of death and start telling the child that “the cat got sick and was taken to the hospital.” “Dad has left and will return when you are already quite old,” etc. But is it worth giving false hope?
Often behind such explanations there actually lies a desire to spare not the child’s psyche, but one’s own. Young children do not yet understand the meaning of such concepts as “forever”, “forever”, they consider death to be a reversible process, especially in light of how it is presented in modern cartoons and films, where characters either die or move to another world and turn into funny ghosts. Children's ideas about non-existence are extremely blurred. But for us, adults, who are well aware of the gravity of what happened, it is often very, very difficult to talk about the death of loved ones. And the big tragedy is not that the child will have to be told that dad will never return, but that they themselves will have to experience it again.
How traumatic information about the death of a loved one will be depends on the tone in which you talk about it with your child, with what emotional message. At this age, children are traumatized not so much by words as by the way we say them. Therefore, no matter how bitter the death of a loved one is for us, in order to talk with a child we should gain strength and calmness in order not only to inform him about what happened, but also to talk, discuss this event, and answer the questions that have arisen.
However, psychologists recommend telling children the truth. Parents must understand how much information and what quality their child is able to perceive, and must give him the answers that he will understand. In addition, it is usually difficult for young children to clearly formulate their question, so you need to try to understand what exactly is worrying the baby - he is afraid to be left alone, or he is afraid that mom and dad will also die soon, he is afraid of dying himself, or something else. And in such situations, believing parents find themselves in a more advantageous position, because they can tell their child that the soul of their grandmother (dad or other relative) has flown to heaven to God. This information is more benign than purely atheistic: “Grandma died and she is no more.” And most importantly, the topic of death should not be taboo. We get rid of fears by talking about them, so the child also needs to talk about this topic and get answers to questions that are understandable to him.
It is still difficult for young children to understand why their loved one is taken away from home and buried in the ground. In their understanding, even dead people need food, light, and communication. Therefore, it is quite possible that you will hear the question: “When will they dig it up and bring it back?” the child may worry that her beloved grandmother is alone underground and will not be able to get out of there on her own, that she will feel bad, dark and scared there. Most likely, he will ask this question more than once, because it is difficult for him to assimilate the new concept of “forever.” We must calmly answer that the dead are not dug up, that they remain in the cemetery forever, that the dead no longer need food and warmth, and do not distinguish between light and night.
When explaining the phenomenon of death, you should not go into theological details about the Last Judgment, that the souls of good people go to Heaven, and the souls of bad people go to Hell, and so on. It is enough for a small child to say that dad has become an angel and is now looking at him from heaven, that angels are invisible, you cannot talk to them or hug them, but you can feel them with your heart. If a child asks a question about why a loved one died, then you should not answer in the style of “everything is God’s will”, “God gave - God took”, “it was God’s will” - the child may begin to consider God an evil being who causes grief and suffering to people and separating him from his loved ones.
The question often arises: should I take children to the cemetery for burial or not? Definitely - small ones are not allowed. The age at which a child will be able to survive the oppressive atmosphere of a burial, when the adult psyche cannot always withstand it, is purely individual. The sight of sobbing people, a dug hole, a coffin being lowered into a grave is not for the child’s psyche. Let the child, if possible, say goodbye to the deceased at home.
Sometimes adults are perplexed as to why a child reacts sluggishly to the death of a loved one, does not cry or mourn. This happens because children are not yet able to experience grief in the same way as adults. They do not fully understand the tragedy of what happened and, if they experience it, it is inside and in a different way. Their experiences can be expressed in the fact that the baby will often talk about the deceased, remember how they communicated, and spent time together. These conversations must be supported, so the child gets rid of anxiety and worries. At the same time, if you notice that after the death of a loved one, the baby developed the habit of biting his nails, sucking his finger, he began to wet the bed, became more irritable and whiny - this means that his experiences are much deeper than you might think, he is not If you are able to cope with them, you need to contact a psychologist.
Memorial rituals adopted by believers help to cope with grief. Going to the cemetery with your child and putting a bouquet of flowers on the grave will make your grandmother happy. Go to church with him and light a candle on the eve, read a simple prayer. You can take out an album with photographs and tell your child about how good his grandparents were, and remember the pleasant episodes from life associated with them. The thought that, having left the earth, the deceased did not disappear completely, that in this way we can maintain at least such a connection with him, has a calming effect and gives us hope that life continues after death.
ABC of education
