Death is perhaps one of the least discussed and frequently concealed realities of life in contemporary Western societies. Nonetheless, it remains the one event we all expect to encounter, even if we perceive it only dimly as something in our distant future.
Archimandrite Panteleimon, was a Russian who came to the United States in 1913 and in 1930 founded the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York. It was to become the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia during the long years of Communist control of his homeland. He compiled this books from a wide variety of Russian and other sources out of the conviction that:
The science of sciences, the education of human beings so that they may become worthy representatives of the human race, cannot be correct and sensible if it is not founded on a broad and true knowledge of man’s spiritual life.
He shows how this true knowledge is founded upon the understanding of the One God as a Trinity of three Persons and that inextricably linked to this is belief is the immortality of the human soul. Thus he concludes that: An expectation of a future life, together with faith in God, forms the foundation of a well ordered life on earth, not to speak of a future life.
He goes on to offer many examples of the awareness of the life beyond death and in so doing offers the clear hope of a growth in life “beyond the grave” of this temporal existence.
