In Mitch Albom's popular novel
The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Hyperion 2003), Albom presents a vision of heaven and the afterlife, but the novel is not just about what happens after we die. It also offers some pretty important insights into the lives we lead in the here and now.
Using the Wisdom Traditions of the Bible as their backdrop, Gilvin and Godsey bring us into a discussion of what, as Albom suggests in his novel, might truly be important in life. Wisdom Literature, says Gilvin and Godsey, expresses the way individuals experience life. Illustrating biblical concepts with examples from Albom's novel,
Wisdom from the Five People You Meet in Heaven parallels each of the characters of
The Five People You Meet in Heaven with the themes and insights from a particular selection from Wisdom Literature.
For individual reading or group discussion, each of the six chapters offer questions for reflection or as discussion starters.
From the Popular Insights series:
Discovering personal insights in popular novels.
Does popular fiction have anything to teach us about what it means to live as Christians? Can we gain insights into who we are as children of God from a novel? In the Popular Insights series, novels are more than entertainment. They are an entry into theological discussions, Bible and church history, scripture, and new understandings of ourselves and how we live in community.
