A compassionate vision for living in relationship with those affected by suicide Rhonda Mawhood Lee is a priest, spiritual director, and daughter whose mother died by suicide. She knows about complicated grief. Having grown up in a family haunted by self-inflicted death for multiple generations, Rhonda has asked and re-asked the questions for which there are no easy answers. And she knows she's not alone in her search for understanding.
Drawing on her vocational insights and personal experiences, Lee offers a compassionate vision for understanding and responding to suicide. With clarity and candor, she reflects on the unintended consequences of many traditional Christian teachings around suicide. In search of a better way, Lee turns to the communion of saints--a theologically rich concept that Christians can draw on to reframe their relationships with people who have died by suicide, and with those who are at risk of ending their own lives.
Through this sensitive and thoughtful resource, readers will learn what it might mean to stay in relationship with both the living and the dead, bearing witness to hope and faith in God's creative and redemptive love.
Part One: Suicide, Sin, and Grace
1. How We Talk about Suicide
2. Suicide and the Bible
3. Augustine and Thomas
4. Unforeseen Consequences
5. Sinful Settings
Part Two: The Communion of Saints
6. The Suicidal Christian
7. Suicide and the Communion of Saints
8. Remembering God's People Who Die by Suicide
Questions to Consider
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Further Resources
