A young pastor called me one evening, his voice tight with something between fear and frustration. "I'm sitting with a woman whose husband just died an hour ago," he said. "She's asking me whether his soul is with Jesus right now or asleep until the resurrection. She's asking about an intermediate state and a final state and I don't know what she means. I don't want to sound stupid. But more than that — I don't want to sound cold." He paused. "I just need the words."
That phone call is part of the reason this glossary exists. Grief does not wait for us to catch up on our theological reading. The widow on the couch does not care whether you can pronounce apokatastasis. But she cares, terribly, whether her husband is alive somewhere. She cares whether the pastor sitting across from her has thought about these things long enough to offer her something better than a shrug. And the pastor cares whether he can honor her husband's memory without saying something he does not believe.
This glossary is a tool for that moment — and for the slower moments in between. It is for the grieving Christian who has been reading this book and wants to understand a word more fully before returning to it. It is for the pastor preparing a funeral sermon and wanting to get a technical term right. It is for the caregiver translating between the research literature and a worried family. And it is for the student of grief and hope who has a real question and no one nearby to answer it.
I have tried to write every entry in plain language, the way I would want a trusted pastor-friend to explain it to someone I love. The entries are short — two to four sentences in most cases, a little longer where the term carries unusual pastoral weight. Biblical references are woven in where they belong. I have resisted the temptation to settle every debate; where the church has disagreed for centuries, I have tried to lay out the disagreement fairly and let you know where this book lands.
Words matter in grief. When we use the wrong word — "passed away" to a child who does not understand what that means, "in a better place" to a mother who is not sure she believes it, "resting" to a widow who has read that her husband is not asleep at all — we can, without meaning to, add to the weight she is already carrying. When we use the right word slowly, with love, we can help her rest.
I also want to be honest about what a glossary cannot do. It cannot settle every debate. It cannot protect you from the hard questions. It cannot replace the slow work of reading Scripture, praying in the dark, or sitting across from a trusted pastor or friend. A glossary is a hallway, not a home. It exists to help you find the room you need and to close the door behind you when you find it. When the word clicks, put the book down and go be with the Lord, or go be with the person you love. The definitions have served their purpose the moment you stop needing them.
The glossary is organized into four sections: Theological Terms, Biblical-Language Terms (Hebrew and Greek words used in the book), NDE and DBE Research Terms, and Pastoral and Clinical Terms. Within each section the entries are grouped by theme, not alphabetical order, so that related terms sit next to each other and clarify each other. If you are looking for a particular word, use your browser's search function or the printed table of contents for this appendix.
Where a term has a standard abbreviation (NDE for near-death experience, DBE for deathbed experience, ECT for eternal conscious torment, ADC for after-death communication), I have included the abbreviation in parentheses. Where a Hebrew or Greek term is important, I have given the original script along with a transliteration. Where the book takes a specific position on a debated term, I say so — and I tell you where the other views would send you.
A Pastoral Note on Technical Language. None of these words can carry your grief for you. They are signposts, not shelters. The shelter is Christ, and His arms do not require a vocabulary quiz. But words are how we come to understand what Christ is doing, and they are how we speak hope to the neighbor across the kitchen table. Use them gently. Use them to open the door to the promises of God, then step aside and let Him speak.
These are the historic terms of Christian teaching about death, the soul, the afterlife, and the hope of salvation. Some have been around since the early centuries of the church. Others were coined more recently as Christians worked to describe the truths of Scripture with fresh precision. All of them eventually bring us back to the same place: the promise that in Jesus Christ, death does not have the last word. Some of these terms are debated among faithful Christians, and where this is so, I have tried to name the debate rather than hide it. A grieving reader does not need to be told the question is settled when it is not. But neither does a grieving reader need every debate resolved in order to rest in the love of God. The central Christian hope — that Christ has defeated death, that those who are His are safe with Him, and that a bodily resurrection is coming — rests on ground firmer than any of the secondary debates.
The time between a person's death and the final resurrection of the dead at the last day. The intermediate state is not the same as the final Heaven or the final Hell; it is the waiting room between them. During the intermediate state, the souls of those who have died in Christ are with Jesus in Paradise (Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:6–8), while the souls of those who finally reject Christ wait in Hades for the final judgment (Luke 16:19–31). The intermediate state is real, conscious, and personal — but it is temporary. The great Christian hope is not the intermediate state itself; it is the resurrection that ends it.1
The specific belief that during the waiting time between death and resurrection, the person is fully awake, aware, and experiencing things — not in a coma, not in a dreamless sleep. This is the historic Christian view, held by the overwhelming majority of Christian theologians across twenty centuries. It is supported by Luke 23:43 ("today you will be with me in paradise"), 2 Corinthians 5:8 ("away from the body and at home with the Lord"), and Revelation 6:9–11 (the souls under the altar who speak, wait, and are answered). The pastoral promises of this book rest on this foundation. When we tell a grieving mother that her child is with Jesus right now, we mean it: her child, as a conscious person, is with Jesus at this moment.2
The belief, held by a minority of Christians (including the Seventh-day Adventist tradition and some conditionalists), that between death and resurrection the soul is unconscious — asleep, not aware of anything. The idea draws on biblical language that compares death to sleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13; John 11:11). Most Christian theologians have rejected soul sleep because many passages describe the dead in Christ as consciously present with the Lord, praying, praising, and waiting (Revelation 6:9–11; Luke 16:19–31; Matthew 17:3, where Moses and Elijah appear and converse at the Transfiguration). This book takes the traditional view: "sleep" is a gentle metaphor for the body's rest, not a description of the soul's unawareness.
The belief that a human being is composed of two distinct kinds of things — a physical body and an immaterial soul — that are truly different but deeply joined in this life. When the body dies, the soul continues to exist as a conscious subject, awaiting reunion with a resurrected body at the last day. Substance dualism is the historic Christian view of human nature, held by virtually every major Christian theologian from the early church through the twentieth century.3 It is the philosophical foundation beneath the biblical teaching that the dead in Christ are "away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). It is also the foundation beneath every pastoral promise this book makes about your loved one who died in Christ.
Why This Term Matters Pastorally. Substance dualism is not an abstract philosophical puzzle for grieving people. It is the answer to "Is she still there?" If substance dualism is true — and the Bible, the tradition, and the careful research all point the same direction — then your mother, as a conscious person, is not gone. She is not annihilated. She is not unconscious. She is somewhere. And for those who die in Christ, that somewhere is with Christ Himself.
A newer minority view, held by some evangelical philosophers and theologians, that human beings are entirely physical — there is no immaterial soul, and at death the whole person ceases to exist as a conscious being until God raises them on the last day. Physicalists appeal to the holistic language of Scripture, where "soul" (nephesh) often means the whole living person. They point to the reality of how brain damage affects mental life. But the cost is high: on this view, your loved one who died yesterday is not conscious anywhere right now — the person has simply ceased to exist until the resurrection. The pastoral claims of this book do not fit with physicalism; they rest on substance dualism.4
A middle position between substance dualism and physicalism. Property dualists say that only one kind of substance exists (physical matter) but that it has two kinds of real properties — physical properties and mental properties. Thoughts, feelings, and experiences are real and not reducible to the firing of neurons, but they are properties "of" the brain rather than properties of a separate soul. Property dualism is sometimes held by Christians who want to affirm the reality of the mind while avoiding a separate soul, but it struggles to explain how the person survives the death of the body — which is what Scripture teaches and what this book assumes.
The philosophical view that a human being is made of only one kind of thing. Christian physicalism is a form of monism; it says we are our bodies, and nothing more. Substance dualism is not monism; it says we are made of two kinds of things, body and soul. When you read theological literature, the word "monism" is usually shorthand for some form of physicalism. The opposite is dualism.
A view from Aristotle, later taken up by Thomas Aquinas and much of Catholic tradition, that sees the human person as a unity of matter (hyle) and form (morphē). On this view the soul is the "form" of the body — not a ghost loosely attached, but the organizing principle of the body's life. Aquinas taught that the soul can survive the body's death, though in a diminished condition, as it awaits the resurrection. Many contemporary Christian philosophers still find hylomorphism helpful because it honors both our deep unity with our bodies and the soul's survival of death.
A more recent view, defended especially by the philosopher William Hasker, that the soul is real and distinct from the body but "emerges" from the body's biological development rather than being separately created or pre-existent. Emergent dualism tries to honor modern developmental science and evolutionary biology while still affirming that the soul is a real substance that can survive the death of the body. It is a minority position, but one that serious Christian thinkers have defended.
The belief that God's opportunity for people to respond to the gospel is not cut off at the moment of physical death. God continues to love and pursue the unsaved after death, offering a genuine, personal encounter with Christ — either during the dying process, in the intermediate state, or at or during the final judgment. Key biblical texts include 1 Peter 3:18–4:6 (Christ preached to the "spirits in prison"), Ephesians 4:8–10 (the descent of Christ), Romans 14:9 ("Lord of the dead and of the living"), and 1 Peter 4:6 ("the gospel was preached even to those who are dead"). Postmortem opportunity was held by significant early Church Fathers (Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa) and is defended today by serious evangelical scholars including James Beilby, Stephen Jonathan, Jerry Walls, and Clark Pinnock.5 It is not universalism; it does not deny hell; it does not make faith optional. It simply insists that the God of love does not stop loving at the grave.
For the Grieving Reader. If you have lost a loved one whose faith was unclear, postmortem opportunity is one of the most pastorally important terms in this glossary. It does not tell you, with certainty, where your father or your brother is now. No one can tell you that. But it tells you something else true and important: the God who loved your loved one while they were alive did not stop at their last breath. He met them — or will meet them — with the real face of Jesus, not the distorted image they may have been resisting in this life. That is not wishful thinking. That is a biblically grounded hope, held by faithful Christians for two thousand years.
The view that immortality is not a built-in feature of every human being, but a gift God grants to those who are in Christ. Those who finally and fully reject God will not be preserved in endless torment but will eventually cease to exist — not because God has stopped loving them, but because they have finally refused the Source of life. Key passages include Matthew 10:28 ("the One who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna"), John 3:16 ("shall not perish"), 2 Thessalonians 1:9 ("eternal destruction"), and Revelation 20:14 (the "second death"). This book is written from a gentle conditionalist leaning but does not require the reader to hold this view; it treats the question with charity.
Another name for conditional immortality. "Annihilate" simply means to reduce to nothing. Annihilationists believe that the final fate of those who finally reject God is not unending conscious suffering but the end of existence — what Scripture calls the "second death" (Revelation 20:14). Serious evangelical scholars have defended this position, including John Stott, Edward Fudge, and Clark Pinnock. Whether or not one agrees, the position deserves to be represented fairly rather than caricatured.
The traditional view in most of Western Christianity that those who die outside of Christ suffer consciously in hell without end. Key passages cited in support include Matthew 25:46 ("eternal punishment"), Mark 9:48 ("their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched"), and Revelation 14:11 and 20:10. Many serious Christians across church history have held this view, and no grieving reader should be made to feel ashamed for holding it. This book does not take a polemical stance against ECT; it simply notes that faithful, Bible-believing Christians today hold various positions on the final state (ECT, conditional immortality, and hopeful universalism), and our pastoral claims do not require the reader to resolve this debate.
The belief that in the end, through the finished work of Christ, every person will ultimately be reconciled to God — either in this life or after death, through the refining and persuading love of God. Universal reconciliation is not the same as religious pluralism (which says all religions lead to God) or liberal universalism (which says God saves everyone regardless of Christ). Serious biblical universalists insist that salvation is only through Jesus Christ, but that Christ's saving work will eventually reach every person, however long the journey. Held by Gregory of Nyssa in the early church and by a minority of evangelicals today; this book treats it as a respectful possibility while holding postmortem opportunity and gentle conditionalism as its primary frame.
A specific form of universal reconciliation that holds firmly to biblical authority, the full deity of Christ, the reality of the atonement, the necessity of personal faith in Jesus for salvation, and the terrible seriousness of rejecting God — while also holding that God's saving love will, in the end, reach every person, even if for some it requires postmortem encounter and deep refining. It is to be sharply distinguished from liberal universalism, which denies the uniqueness of Christ. Conservative biblical universalism is held by a small but thoughtful group of evangelicals today. The author regards it as a live and respectful possibility rather than a settled conclusion.
The view that salvation is only through Jesus Christ, but that people who have not heard the gospel explicitly in this life may still be saved through Christ on the basis of whatever light they have received — responding in faith and humility to the God they know partially. Inclusivism maintains the exclusivity of Christ as the only Savior while being generous about how that salvation reaches people. Defenders include C. S. Lewis (most memorably in The Last Battle with the character Emeth), Clark Pinnock, and John Stott.6 Inclusivism is distinct from postmortem opportunity, though the two positions often overlap.
The view that salvation is only through conscious, explicit faith in Jesus Christ during this earthly life. On this view, those who die without hearing the gospel clearly, or without responding to it explicitly, are lost. This has been the majority view in Western Protestantism since the Reformation, but many serious evangelicals are now revisiting it, and Scripture itself is more open than is often assumed (Romans 2:14–16; Acts 10:34–35; Matthew 8:11). Exclusivism deserves to be engaged charitably, not dismissed.
A Greek word meaning "garden" or "park" — originally used in ancient Persia for the royal gardens of kings. In the New Testament, Paradise describes the place where the righteous dead go to be with Christ as they await the resurrection. Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). Paul was caught up to "the third heaven," which he also called Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:4). Revelation 2:7 speaks of the "tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God." Paradise is not yet the New Heavens and New Earth; it is the restful, conscious, Christ-filled portion of the intermediate state for those who are His.
The Greek word used in the New Testament for the general place or state of the dead — the intermediate state as a whole. In Jesus' story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), Hades appears to have two parts: a place of comfort (Abraham's side) and a place of torment. Hades is not the final Hell (Gehenna or the Lake of Fire); it is the waiting place. Revelation 20:13–14 describes Hades itself being emptied of its dead and then destroyed at the last judgment. In most English Bibles, "Hades" has replaced the older translation "hell" in New Testament passages where the Greek is hadēs, precisely because Hades is not the final Hell.
The Hebrew word in the Old Testament for the place of the dead — the general realm that awaits every person. In the earliest Old Testament passages, Sheol appears as a shadowy, quiet place where both the righteous and the unrighteous go — less a theological distinction than simply the reality of death. As God's revelation progressed, Sheol came to be understood as having divisions, with the righteous held in hope (Psalm 16:10; 49:15) and the wicked in darkness. The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) usually translates Sheol with hadēs, which is why the two words overlap so much in Christian usage. Sheol is not the same as Hell in the final sense; it is the intermediate state.7
Originally the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, a place of garbage and fire, and in the Old Testament a site where horrific child sacrifices had been offered (Jeremiah 7:31; 2 Kings 23:10). By the time of Jesus, "Gehenna" had become the standard Jewish term for the final place of God's judgment. Jesus uses the word more than anyone else in Scripture (Matthew 5:22, 29–30; 10:28; 23:33; Mark 9:43–48). Unlike Hades, which is the intermediate state, Gehenna is the final state of judgment for those who finally and irrevocably reject God. Most English Bibles translate Gehenna as "hell," which is where the word most fits.
A phrase used in the book of Revelation (19:20; 20:10, 14–15; 21:8) to describe the final judgment on the devil, the beast, the false prophet, death itself, Hades itself, and those whose names are not found in the Book of Life. Revelation calls it "the second death." On the conditionalist reading, the Lake of Fire represents the final destruction of evil — not its preservation in unending agony. On the traditional ECT reading, it represents unending conscious punishment. Whatever one's final view, the Lake of Fire appears only after the intermediate state, not in place of it, and it is specifically tied to the final judgment.
A phrase used in the book of Revelation (2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8) for the final fate of those who finally reject God. The "first death" is the death of the body at the end of earthly life; the "second death" is whatever happens after the final judgment. Conditionalists understand the second death as the final end of existence. Defenders of ECT understand it as unending conscious torment. The phrase itself — "death" rather than "unending life in torment" — leans more naturally toward the conditionalist reading, but serious Christians disagree. This book does not require the reader to resolve the debate.
The ancient Christian teaching, confessed in the Apostles' Creed, that between His death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day, Jesus "descended to the dead" (or, in older English, "descended into hell," which here translates the Latin inferos — "the lower places," meaning the realm of the dead, not Gehenna). The biblical basis includes 1 Peter 3:18–20 and 4:6; Ephesians 4:8–10; and Acts 2:27, 31. The descent has traditionally been understood as Christ's proclamation of victory to the spirits in prison and as the deliverance of the Old Testament righteous from Sheol. The doctrine stands behind the biblical case for postmortem opportunity and is one of the oldest affirmations of the Christian creed.8
The ancient Christian belief, confessed in the Apostles' Creed, that all believers in Jesus Christ — living and dead — are joined together in one spiritual body under one Lord. The "saints" here are not super-Christians or canonized heroes; the word means "holy ones," which is the New Testament's ordinary word for believers. The communion of saints means that your grandmother who died in faith is not lost to you. She is still part of the same family, gathered around the same risen Christ. Hebrews 12:1 speaks of this great "cloud of witnesses" who have gone before us. This doctrine is the oldest Christian answer to the question, "Are we still connected to our loved ones who have died?"
A Greek word meaning "restoration to the original state." It appears in Acts 3:21, where Peter speaks of "the restoration of all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago." Church Fathers like Origen and Gregory of Nyssa used apokatastasis to describe the final restoration of all creation — and, for some, all rational creatures — to fellowship with God. The word is historically associated with universal reconciliation, though not everyone who uses it is a dogmatic universalist. In modern theological discussion, you will usually see apokatastasis in debates over the scope of Christ's saving work.
A vivid image Jesus used in Luke 16:19–31 for the place where the beggar Lazarus went after death — a place of comfort, near the patriarch Abraham. In the rabbinic literature of Jesus' day, "Abraham's bosom" (or "Abraham's side") was a way of describing the righteous portion of Sheol, where the faithful Old Testament dead were held in hope. The image is a tender one: the righteous dead reclining, safe and honored, at a great banquet presided over by the father of faith. Some Christians have identified Abraham's Bosom with Paradise; most have understood it as the Old Testament equivalent, transformed and fulfilled after the resurrection of Christ.
In Scripture, "soul" is used in several overlapping ways. Sometimes it means the whole living person (Genesis 2:7 — "the man became a living soul"). Sometimes it means the inner life — the emotions, will, and longing of a person (Psalm 42:5 — "Why, my soul, are you downcast?"). And sometimes it means the immaterial part of a person that can be distinguished from the body (Matthew 10:28 — "do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul"). All three senses are biblical; none cancels the others. When this book speaks of "the soul that survives," we are using the third sense — while honoring the first two.
Another biblical word for the immaterial side of a person, used sometimes interchangeably with "soul" and sometimes distinguished from it. "Spirit" often emphasizes the life-breath, the animating principle, and the capacity for relationship with God (Ecclesiastes 12:7 — "the spirit returns to God who gave it"; Luke 23:46 — Jesus entrusts His spirit to the Father as He dies). Some theologians distinguish soul and spirit as two different realities (the "trichotomist" view, appealing to 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12); most Christian theologians treat them as two aspects of the one immaterial self (the "dichotomist" view). This book follows the majority tradition.
The great and final Christian hope: that at the last day, the bodies of the dead will be raised and reunited with their souls in a transformed, glorified, physical form like the resurrection body of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15; Philippians 3:21; John 5:28–29). Resurrection is not escape from the body; it is the redemption of the body. The intermediate state, for all its conscious blessing, is temporary and in a real sense incomplete. Resurrection is the final hope — the moment when "death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:54). Until then, as Paul puts it, "we groan, longing to be further clothed" (2 Corinthians 5:2–4).
The final hope of Christian faith: the renewal of all creation in Christ (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1–5). Not the destruction of the material world but its transfiguration. Heaven and earth joined. God dwelling with His people face to face. Every tear wiped away. Death swallowed up. The resurrected saints living as embodied, redeemed, glorified creatures forever in the presence of Christ and one another. This — not a disembodied heaven — is the deepest Christian hope.
The ancient Christian phrase for the final hope of seeing God face to face — the culmination of Christian salvation. "We shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). "Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12). "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). The beatific vision is the deepest answer Christian theology gives to the question, "What will heaven be like?" It is not, in the end, a place or a pleasure; it is a Person, seen without veil.
From two Greek words meaning "God" and "justice" — the attempt to defend the goodness and justice of God in the face of evil and suffering. Theodicies ask, "If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why is there so much pain in the world?" There are many serious Christian theodicies — free-will responses, greater-good responses, soul-making responses — but all of them finally kneel at the foot of the cross, where God Himself entered into human suffering. This book is not a theodicy, but grieving people often bump into the theodicy question, and it is helpful to know the word for what they are asking.
These are the most important Hebrew and Greek words used in the book — the words behind the English translations of "soul," "spirit," "eternal," and so on. Understanding them does not make you a scholar; it simply helps you read the Bible with a little more precision at the places where precision matters for grief.
A Hebrew word most often translated "soul," but with a much broader meaning than our English word suggests. Nephesh can mean life, breath, person, self, living being, desire, or appetite. In Genesis 2:7 God breathes into the man and he becomes a "living nephesh." Sometimes the word refers to the whole person (the count of "souls" on Noah's ark, Genesis 46:27). Sometimes it refers to the inner self that departs the body at death (Genesis 35:18 — "as her nephesh was departing, for she was dying"). Holistic and dualistic uses of nephesh coexist in the Old Testament, and reading the word rightly requires attention to context.9
A Hebrew word meaning wind, breath, or spirit. Ruach is the Spirit of God hovering over the waters at creation (Genesis 1:2), the life-breath God gives to every creature (Psalm 104:29–30), and the inner spirit of a human being (Psalm 31:5; 51:10). Ecclesiastes 12:7 says that at death, "the ruach returns to God who gave it" — a foundational dualist text. Ruach is the Old Testament word most often used for the immaterial, life-giving dimension of a person that survives physical death.
A Hebrew word meaning breath — specifically the breath of life. In Genesis 2:7, God breathes the "neshamah of life" into the man. Neshamah is closely connected to ruach and often appears alongside it; together they describe the divine breath that animates human life (Job 27:3; 33:4). When the neshamah returns to God, the body returns to dust. The word emphasizes that human life is not self-generated; it is an ongoing gift of God's own breath.
The Greek word in the New Testament usually translated "soul" or "life." Psyche is the equivalent of nephesh and shares its full range of meanings — life, self, inner person, immaterial soul. Jesus warns, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the psyche; rather fear him who can destroy both psyche and body in Gehenna" (Matthew 10:28) — a crucial text for substance dualism. Jesus also asks, "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their psyche?" (Matthew 16:26). The word carries eternal weight.
The Greek word for wind, breath, or spirit. Pneuma is the New Testament equivalent of ruach and is used for the Holy Spirit, for spiritual beings (angels and demons), and for the human spirit. Jesus entrusts His "pneuma" to the Father as He dies on the cross (Luke 23:46). Stephen prays, "Lord Jesus, receive my pneuma" as he is martyred (Acts 7:59). Paul speaks of being "away from the body and at home with the Lord" in his innermost self (2 Corinthians 5:6–8). The word names what goes home to God.
Greek words meaning "age" (noun) and "age-long" or "pertaining to the age" (adjective). The adjective is often translated "eternal" in English Bibles, but the word literally means "belonging to the age" — especially "the age to come." The precise range of aionios is one of the central questions in the debate over the duration of punishment (Matthew 25:46). Conditionalists and universalists argue for a more bounded sense in certain contexts; traditionalists argue for unending duration. Reputable scholars have defended each view; this book notes the debate without trying to settle it in passing.
A Hebrew word roughly parallel to the Greek aion — meaning a long age, a distant time past or future, or (by extension) "forever." Olam is used of God's steadfast love "from everlasting to everlasting" (Psalm 103:17), of mountains called "eternal" (Genesis 49:26), of a slave's lifelong service "olam" (Exodus 21:6), and of the future messianic age. Context determines whether olam means "unending" or simply "age-long." The Hebrew mind was less interested in abstract infinity than in the God who is Lord of every age.
A Greek word usually translated "repentance" — but more literally "change of mind," a deep transformation of the way one sees God, self, and world. John the Baptist and Jesus both call people to metanoia (Matthew 3:2; 4:17). It is not merely feeling sorry for sins but turning from one direction and moving in another. For the postmortem opportunity question, metanoia is pivotal: can a soul still undergo metanoia after death when confronted with the living Christ? The question is why this unassuming word carries such weight in pastoral theology.
These are the terms used in the careful research literature on near-death experiences and deathbed experiences. This is a field fifty years old now, with thousands of peer-reviewed studies and tens of thousands of documented cases. Knowing the vocabulary helps you weigh the evidence carefully, without either dismissing it out of hand or believing every sensational book at the checkout line. A grieving Christian can rightly ask both, "What does the research actually show?" and "How does it fit with Scripture?" These terms are tools for asking both questions well.
A lucid, often deeply meaningful experience reported by some people who have been clinically dead or extremely close to death and then revived. Common features include a sense of leaving the body, moving through a dark space or tunnel, encountering a radiant being of light, meeting deceased loved ones, experiencing a life review, feeling overwhelmed by love and peace, and receiving a "return" decision or instruction. Not every NDE includes every feature. NDEs have been documented across cultures and centuries, though they have been studied systematically only since Raymond Moody's Life After Life in 1975.10
The perception of being outside one's own body, often looking down at it from above — commonly reported as seeing the resuscitation team working on one's own body while one floats in the corner of the ceiling. OBEs are a common feature of NDEs but can occur in other contexts (certain trauma responses, meditation, some neurological conditions). In NDE research, the OBE is the feature most open to testing, because experiencers sometimes report accurate information about events they could not have known through normal sensory means.
A near-death experience in which the experiencer reports information later verified to be accurate — information they could not plausibly have obtained through normal senses while clinically dead or deeply unconscious. Examples include seeing specific objects in rooms they were not in, hearing specific conversations in hallways or waiting rooms, recognizing deceased relatives they had never met, or observing details of their own resuscitation that were later confirmed by medical staff.11 Veridical cases are especially important in scholarly debate because they resist purely physicalist explanations of NDEs.
A near-death experience that is frightening, painful, or hellish rather than peaceful. Distressing NDEs are reported less frequently than pleasant ones, but they are real and they are an important part of the honest research picture. Bruce Greyson and Nancy Evans Bush have identified three broad types. Many distressing NDEs turn peaceful when the experiencer cries out to God or to Jesus — a pattern with obvious theological significance. This book addresses distressing NDEs with both honesty and hope.
The experience reported by some NDErs of seeing the events of their life unfold rapidly — sometimes from their own perspective, sometimes from the perspective of people their choices affected. The life review is usually described as honest, searching, and conducted in the presence of a Being of Light whose character is love rather than condemnation. Many experiencers report coming back with a transformed understanding of how their small kindnesses and small cruelties mattered more than they knew. The life review is one of the most transformative features of the NDE.12
A radiant, loving presence encountered by many NDErs, often described as emanating overwhelming love, knowledge, and peace. Christian NDErs frequently identify this being as Jesus Christ, often with specific wounds or recognizable features. Non-Christian NDErs sometimes describe the being in terms consistent with their own frameworks, though many of them also come to identify the being as Christ in retrospect. John Burke, J. Steve Miller, and others have documented in detail that the identification as Jesus is far more common than casual readers assume — even among experiencers who had no prior Christian faith.13
An umbrella term for the range of spiritual and perceptual experiences reported by dying people in the hours, days, or weeks before death. DBEs include deathbed visions, nearing-death awareness, terminal lucidity, shared death experiences, and a wide range of peaceful or troubled end-of-life phenomena. The field of DBE research is, in some ways, older and more robust than NDE research, because it draws on centuries of bedside observation by physicians, nurses, clergy, and families — long before modern resuscitation made NDEs common.14
A specific type of DBE in which the dying person reports seeing deceased loved ones, angelic figures, or religious figures (most commonly Jesus) who appear to have come to accompany them into death. DBVs are reported across cultures and centuries, in religious and secular settings alike. They are distinguished from ordinary hallucinations by their clarity, their emotional impact, their consistency with death, and the frequency with which they are verified by later events — as in Peak in Darien experiences.
A term coined by hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley for the specific ways dying people seem to "know" they are dying and use symbolic language — talking about travel, packing, needing tickets, waiting for someone to arrive — to communicate their readiness.15 Nearing-death awareness is a pastoral gift when family and caregivers learn to listen for it rather than dismissing it as confusion. The dying are often doing important inner work through what sounds, on the surface, like nonsense.
The sudden return of mental clarity in a dying person who had been cognitively impaired — by dementia, Alzheimer's, severe mental illness, brain damage, or deep coma — for months or years. Terminal lucidity often arrives hours or days before death. The patient may recognize family, speak meaningfully, ask for forgiveness, offer comforting words, or even describe seeing deceased loved ones. It is one of the most striking forms of evidence that the mind is not simply a byproduct of the damaged brain — and one of the most pastorally important gifts to Alzheimer's families.16
An experience in which someone present at a death — family member, caregiver, medical professional — perceives aspects of what the dying person appears to be experiencing: seeing a light in the room, feeling a sudden lift of presence, seeing the deceased's spirit leave the body, sometimes briefly traveling with them toward a light before returning. Raymond Moody first named this phenomenon; William Peters has documented it extensively. SDEs are especially evidentially important because they cannot be explained as the dying person's own oxygen-starved brain — a fully alert bystander is reporting the experience.17
An experience reported by the bereaved of receiving some sense of contact from a deceased loved one — a vivid, unusually realistic dream, a sensed presence, an unexpected sign, an auditory impression, a waking vision, or a sense of a specific message. ADCs are extraordinarily common; research suggests that between 30 and 70 percent of bereaved people report some form of them. ADCs must be sharply distinguished from deliberate attempts to contact the dead through mediums, séances, or occult practice, which Scripture clearly forbids (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). ADCs come unsought, as a gift rather than as a summons.
A Note on Discernment. The same word — "after-death communication" — covers a wide range of experiences, from obviously wholesome ones (a dream of a peaceful mother encouraging her grieving daughter in Christ) to clearly dangerous ones (pressure toward occult practice, contradictions of Christian teaching, a spirit claiming to be someone it is not). The fact that something feels spiritual does not mean it is from God. First John 4:1 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits." This book offers a discernment framework in Chapter 25. ADCs themselves are not forbidden by Scripture; seeking them through mediums is.
A specific, evidentially strong type of deathbed vision in which a dying person sees someone "on the other side" whom they did not know had died. The phrase comes from a John Keats poem about explorers cresting a mountain range to see a new ocean — a moment of astonished discovery. Sir William Barrett coined the term after his physician wife observed a dying woman recognizing her deceased sister, whose death had been kept from her. Psychiatrist Bruce Greyson and his colleagues at the University of Virginia have documented many such cases.18 Peak in Darien cases are especially compelling because they resist the hallucination explanation: the patient literally could not have been imagining the person, because she did not know the person had died.
The strong, vivid impression of a deceased loved one's presence — often accompanied by a sense of peace and reassurance — without any clearly perceived visual or auditory component. Sensed presences are among the most common after-death communications. They are not to be pathologized; they are a normal and often deeply consoling part of Christian grief. Many widows and widowers describe this sense of their spouse's continuing nearness during the first weeks after the death. Received with gratitude and discernment, sensed presences can strengthen rather than threaten faith.
A theory in grief research developed by Dennis Klass, Phyllis Silverman, and Steven Nickman in the 1990s, which overturned the older assumption that healthy grief requires "letting go" of the deceased.19 Modern research shows that ongoing, loving bonds with the dead are normal and often crucial to long-term well-being. Christian theology got there long before the research did: the communion of saints is not a metaphor. This book offers a biblical framework for continuing bonds that avoids both rigid severance (the old secular advice) and occult contact-seeking (the biblical prohibition).
A standardized sixteen-item questionnaire developed by psychiatrist Bruce Greyson in 1983 to identify and measure the depth and features of near-death experiences. A score of seven or higher is the research threshold for counting an experience as a "true" NDE. The scale is now the most widely used instrument in NDE research and allows for meaningful comparison across different studies and populations.
A shorthand abbreviation for "near-death experiencer" — a person who has had a near-death experience. The term is used extensively in research literature, support communities, and popular writing on the subject.
An NDE rich in spiritual, religious, or mystical features — an encounter with a Being of Light, overwhelming love, a life review, reunion with deceased loved ones, or a sense of divine presence. Transcendent NDEs are typically contrasted with shallower "physical" NDEs that involve primarily an out-of-body experience without the deeper spiritual dimensions. Research by Pim van Lommel and others has distinguished these varieties in detail.20
Two major multi-hospital research projects led by cardiologist Sam Parnia to study consciousness and recall during cardiac arrest. AWARE I (2008–2014) and AWARE II (2014–2020) have produced important evidence that some patients retain awareness and form memories during clinical death, including verifiable visual and auditory recall of their own resuscitation. The studies are published in peer-reviewed medical journals and are among the most rigorous scientific work in the field.
The International Association for Near-Death Studies, founded in 1981 and based in the United States. IANDS is the oldest organization devoted to research, public education, and peer support concerning near-death and related experiences. It publishes the Journal of Near-Death Studies and maintains a searchable database of documented cases. Pastors and caregivers looking for reputable, peer-reviewed research on NDEs can begin with IANDS resources.
These are the terms used in the pastoral theology and clinical research literature on grief itself. They come from hospice nurses, bereavement counselors, grief researchers, and pastors who have sat with many people in many seasons of loss. Knowing them does not turn you into a clinician. It simply gives you more precise language for what the grieving person sitting across from you is actually going through.
The grief that begins before death, when a loved one has received a terminal diagnosis and the family begins to grieve losses that have already started and losses yet to come. Anticipatory grief is real grief, not a rehearsal and not a "pre-grief." It is the honest recognition that the person is going to die and that many small deaths along the way — loss of strength, memory, appetite, personality, independence — are already happening. Contrary to older theories, anticipatory grief does not reliably "shorten" grief after the death; it simply begins it sooner.
A term coined by psychologist Pauline Boss for losses that lack clear closure.21 Boss identifies two types: the person physically present but psychologically absent (as in dementia), and the person physically absent but psychologically present (as in a missing person, an estrangement, or certain kinds of divorce). Ambiguous loss is especially hard because the grief does not resolve in the usual ways; the person is neither fully alive to us nor fully gone. Families walking with Alzheimer's live with ambiguous loss every day.
Grief that, rather than slowly softening over months and years, becomes stuck, intense, and life-limiting for an extended period. Symptoms may include persistent overwhelming longing, inability to accept the death, avoidance of reminders, intense intrusive thoughts, or difficulty resuming daily functioning. Complicated grief is not a moral failure or a lack of faith; it is a pastoral and sometimes clinical concern that may benefit from professional help alongside the ongoing support of the church.
The clinical diagnostic name, now recognized in the DSM-5-TR and the ICD-11, for severe and persistent grief that meaningfully impairs a person's daily functioning for at least twelve months after the death (six months for children). The diagnosis names what pastors have long called complicated grief and allows bereaved people to access evidence-based therapies such as complicated grief treatment (CGT) and certain adapted cognitive-behavioral approaches. A diagnosis is not a shame; it is a key that opens the door to specific help.
The fresh wave of grief that often breaks over the bereaved on significant dates — the anniversary of the death, the loved one's birthday, the wedding anniversary, the holidays they loved, the date of a diagnosis or a last good day. Anniversary grief can catch people off guard months or years into their loss, sometimes arriving before they consciously remember what day it is. It is not a regression or a failure; it is the body and soul remembering what they love. Pastors learn to mark these dates on their own calendars.
Grief compounded by the traumatic nature of the death itself — sudden, violent, unexpected, or witnessed. Traumatic grief often includes post-traumatic symptoms (intrusive memories, flashbacks, hyperarousal, avoidance) alongside the grief itself. It frequently benefits from trauma-specialized therapy (including EMDR and trauma-focused CBT) in addition to ordinary pastoral care. Pastors should know when to refer; grief in the wake of trauma is not the same as grief after a peaceful death, and both kinds deserve appropriate help.
The objective fact of having lost someone to death. "Bereavement" is distinct from "grief" (the internal experience) and "mourning" (the outward expression). A person is in bereavement from the moment of the death forward; the status does not have a fixed end date, though the acute experience of grief gradually softens with time. Clinicians and pastors use "bereavement" carefully because it names a condition rather than an emotion.
The outward, often social and cultural, expression of grief — funeral rites, wearing certain colors, observing certain behaviors, keeping certain rhythms, saying certain prayers. Mourning is to grief what expression is to emotion. A culture that refuses to mourn leaves the grieving more alone and makes grief harder to carry. The ancient biblical and Christian practices of mourning — sitting shiva, rending garments, wearing sackcloth, the forty days of certain Eastern Christian traditions — are not cultural leftovers; they are practical wisdom about how human beings metabolize loss.
The biblical practice of bringing sorrow, anger, confusion, protest, and ache to God in prayer and song. Lament is everywhere in Scripture — one-third of the Psalms, the entire book of Lamentations, much of Job, much of Jeremiah, and the bitter prayers of Jesus Himself in Gethsemane and on the cross. Lament is not doubt; it is faith speaking honestly. The laments of Scripture do not pretend that everything is fine; they insist that God is still listening when everything is very much not fine. "How long, O Lord?" (Psalm 13:1) is not a failure of faith — it is one of the most faithful prayers in the Bible. Christians who have lost the practice of lament have lost one of the most important gifts God gave for grief. This book commends lament as a faithful, even essential, form of prayer in seasons of loss.22
A term coined by researcher Kenneth Doka for grief that is not openly acknowledged, socially supported, or publicly mourned — the grief of a miscarriage nobody else knew about, the grief of a suicide the family feels they must hide, the grief of a divorced spouse when the ex-spouse dies, the grief of a coworker or friend, the grief of a pet's death. Disenfranchised grief still counts; it simply isn't always welcomed by the surrounding community. A wise pastor learns to see the grief nobody else is naming.
The cascade of additional losses that flow from a primary death — loss of income, loss of identity, loss of home, loss of friendships tied to the deceased, loss of future plans, loss of sexual intimacy, loss of social roles, loss of the life-rhythms that held a marriage or family together. Secondary losses can rival the primary loss in pain and often arrive unexpectedly in the months after the funeral, when the casseroles have stopped and everyone else has returned to normal. Pastors who stay through the secondary losses give the most lasting care.
A model of healthy grief developed by Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut in the 1990s that sees the bereaved oscillating between "loss-oriented" coping (engaging the grief itself — crying, remembering, feeling the ache) and "restoration-oriented" coping (engaging daily life and the changed world — going to work, raising the children, making meals).23 Healthy grief is not choosing one or the other but moving back and forth between them as needed. The dual process model has largely replaced older "stage" theories that prescribed a fixed sequence of emotions.
No glossary can define what you are living through. The definitions can help — words are gifts, and the right word at the right moment can unknot a long tangle of confusion. But in the end, the grief you carry has no entry. It is yours, unrepeatable, and it deserves language larger than any reference book can hold. The woman who buried her son last spring and the widower whose wife died yesterday are carrying two different weights, even if the dictionary offers them the same words. Honor the specifics. Refuse the easy script. Let the words serve the grief, and not the other way around.
When the words fail, they have not let you down. They have done what words were always meant to do: lead us to the edge of what can be said, and leave us in the presence of the One who is still saying, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). The Word became flesh (John 1:14) precisely because the dictionaries could not carry us far enough. Jesus can. He has already gone down into the grave, and He has already come out, and in Him your loved one is either already at rest or still being pursued by a love that does not quit.
A Closing Pastoral Word. These words are tools. They are not the thing itself. The thing itself is a crucified and risen Lord who has promised, "Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19). If you ever find yourself drowning in technical terms and grief at the same time, put the book down. Rest your hand on your heart. Breathe. Say the name of Jesus. The words were given to help you; they are not a test you have to pass. The love of God has already met you here, and it does not require your vocabulary.
1 For the historic Christian view of the intermediate state, see John W. Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), chapter 4, "New Testament Anthropology: The Intermediate State." ↩
2 Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting, chapter 5, "Summary of Biblical Teaching," makes the sustained biblical case. See also Joshua R. Farris, An Introduction to Theological Anthropology: Humans, Both Creaturely and Divine (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), chapter 3, "The Constitution of Human Nature," on the conscious intermediate state as the historic consensus. ↩
3 Farris, An Introduction to Theological Anthropology, chapter 3, "The Constitution of Human Nature," under "Varieties of Substance Dualism," surveys the major versions of substance dualism (pure, compound, and hybrid) and their relation to theological anthropology. See also Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting, chapters 8–9, for historical development. ↩
4 For a fair presentation of Christian physicalism and its difficulties, see Farris, An Introduction to Theological Anthropology, chapter 3, "The Constitution of Human Nature," under "Physicalism." The author's own companion volume, Crowned with Glory and Honor, manuscript edition, chapter 1, "The Contemporary Dualism-Physicalism Debate," addresses this in more detail. ↩
5 James Beilby, Postmortem Opportunity: A Biblical and Theological Assessment of Salvation After Death (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021); Stephen Jonathan, Grace Beyond the Grave: Is Salvation Possible in the Afterlife? (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014); Jerry L. Walls, Does God Love Everyone? The Heart of What's Wrong with Calvinism (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016); Clark H. Pinnock, A Wideness in God's Mercy: The Finality of Jesus Christ in a World of Religions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992). ↩
6 C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York: Macmillan, 1956), chapter 15, "Further Up and Further In" (the Emeth passage); Pinnock, A Wideness in God's Mercy, throughout. ↩
7 Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting, chapter 3, "Old Testament Anthropology," and chapter 4, "Intertestamental Developments," traces the development of Sheol toward the New Testament doctrine of the intermediate state. ↩
8 On the descent of Christ and postmortem opportunity, see Beilby, Postmortem Opportunity, chapters 4–5 (the exegesis of 1 Peter 3:18–4:6 and Ephesians 4:8–10). ↩
9 Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting, chapter 3, "Old Testament Anthropology," under "The Holistic Emphasis" and "The Dualistic Emphasis," surveys the lexical range of nephesh and ruach. ↩
10 Raymond A. Moody, Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon — Survival of Bodily Death (Atlanta: Mockingbird Books, 1975); Jeffrey Long with Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (New York: HarperOne, 2010), chapter 1, "What Is a Near-Death Experience?" ↩
11 Michael Sabom, Light and Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), chapter 3, "Death-Defying Experiences," presents the classic Pam Reynolds case of a veridical NDE during standstill surgery. ↩
12 John Burke, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2015), chapter 3, "The Life Review." ↩
13 Burke, Imagine Heaven, chapters 5–7, on encounters with Jesus in NDEs; J. Steve Miller, Is Christianity Compatible with Deathbed and Near-Death Experiences? The Surprising Presence of Jesus, Scarcity of Anti-Christian Elements, and Compatibility with Historic Christian Teachings (Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2022), chapter 4, "The Surprising Presence of Jesus." ↩
14 J. Steve Miller, Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for the Afterlife, Volume 1: A Groundbreaking, Scientific Apologetic, Evaluating Death-Related Visions, Terminal Lucidity and After Death Communications (Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2023), chapter 1, "Introduction: Why Deathbed Experiences Matter." ↩
15 Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley, Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying (New York: Bantam, 1997), chapters 2–3, on nearing-death awareness. ↩
16 Miller, Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for the Afterlife, Volume 1, chapter 2, "Phenomena at the Time of Death," under "Terminal Lucidity." See also Miller, Deathbed Experiences Dissertation, manuscript edition, chapter 4, on terminal lucidity and its evidential significance. ↩
17 Raymond Moody and Paul Perry, Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One's Passage from This Life to the Next (New York: Guideposts, 2010); William Peters, At Heaven's Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022). ↩
18 Miller, Deathbed Experiences Dissertation, chapter 3, "Peak in Darien Experiences"; Bruce Greyson, "Seeing Deceased Persons Not Known to Have Died: 'Peak in Darien' Experiences," Anthropology and Humanism 35, no. 2 (2010): 159–171. ↩
19 Dennis Klass, Phyllis R. Silverman, and Steven L. Nickman, eds., Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief (London: Taylor & Francis, 1996). ↩
20 Pim van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (New York: HarperOne, 2010), chapters 1–3, on the types and features of NDEs. ↩
21 Pauline Boss, Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999); Boss, Loving Someone Who Has Dementia: How to Find Hope While Coping with Stress and Grief (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011). ↩
22 For the recovery of Christian lament in pastoral practice, see Nancy Guthrie, Holding On to Hope: A Pathway Through Suffering to the Heart of God (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2002); Tim Keller, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering (New York: Dutton, 2013); Jerry Sittser, A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss, 20th anniversary ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2021). ↩
23 Margaret S. Stroebe and Henk Schut, "The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: Rationale and Description," Death Studies 23, no. 3 (1999): 197–224; and "The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: A Decade On," Omega 61, no. 4 (2010): 273–289. ↩
Beilby, James. Postmortem Opportunity: A Biblical and Theological Assessment of Salvation After Death. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021.
Boss, Pauline. Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Boss, Pauline. Loving Someone Who Has Dementia: How to Find Hope While Coping with Stress and Grief. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.
Burke, John. Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2015.
Callanan, Maggie, and Patricia Kelley. Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying. New York: Bantam, 1997.
Cooper, John W. Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
Farris, Joshua R. An Introduction to Theological Anthropology: Humans, Both Creaturely and Divine. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020.
Greyson, Bruce. "Seeing Deceased Persons Not Known to Have Died: 'Peak in Darien' Experiences." Anthropology and Humanism 35, no. 2 (2010): 159–171.
Guthrie, Nancy. Holding On to Hope: A Pathway Through Suffering to the Heart of God. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2002.
Jonathan, Stephen. Grace Beyond the Grave: Is Salvation Possible in the Afterlife? Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014.
Keller, Timothy. Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. New York: Dutton, 2013.
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Miller, J. Steve. Is Christianity Compatible with Deathbed and Near-Death Experiences? The Surprising Presence of Jesus, Scarcity of Anti-Christian Elements, and Compatibility with Historic Christian Teachings. Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2022.
Moody, Raymond A. Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon — Survival of Bodily Death. Atlanta: Mockingbird Books, 1975.
Moody, Raymond, and Paul Perry. Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One's Passage from This Life to the Next. New York: Guideposts, 2010.
Peters, William. At Heaven's Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022.
Pinnock, Clark H. A Wideness in God's Mercy: The Finality of Jesus Christ in a World of Religions. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.
Sabom, Michael. Light and Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.
Sittser, Jerry. A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss. 20th anniversary ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2021.
Stroebe, Margaret S., and Henk Schut. "The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: A Decade On." Omega 61, no. 4 (2010): 273–289.
Stroebe, Margaret S., and Henk Schut. "The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: Rationale and Description." Death Studies 23, no. 3 (1999): 197–224.
van Lommel, Pim. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience. New York: HarperOne, 2010.
Walls, Jerry L. Does God Love Everyone? The Heart of What's Wrong with Calvinism. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016.