BREATHERS OF AN AMPLER DAY

Victorian Views of Heaven

Written by: Ian Bradley

Published by: Sacristy Press 

Price: £14.99

In what he predicts will be his last theological book, Bradley, Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History at the University of St Andrews and a Church of Scotland minister, considers the subject of heaven as seen through Victorian eyes, nearly 50 years after the publication of his first book.

The work, he says, is a testament to the writers with which he has felt most comfortable – Alfred Tennyson, F D Maurice, George Matheson and John Ellerton – and seeks to consider the subject of heaven, a subject he believes has been studiously avoided since the Victorian era.

He believes the words and wisdom of many prolific Victorian authors may dispel some of the myths and fears around dying today and leave readers a little better prepared for what may lie ahead, moving away from its development as a moment of privacy and ‘over-medicalisation’.

His aim, with the book, is to provide ‘consolation and encouragement’ as ‘we prepare for the final pilgrimage which awaits us all as we cast off, cross the bar and return to the ocean depths of God’s love.’