AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Christopher's Summer: A Father and Son Explore the Mysteries of Life by Jeffrey S. Dugan, Mark J. Weisman, Frank Deford ISBN: 1-58182-239-1 Publisher: Cumberland House Pub. Date: 17 September, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: A Father's Honest Answers About Life and Death
Comment: Revelation often has a waterfront address. Think of Thoreau, pen in hand, on the banks of Walden Pond...Leonardo da Vinci, pondering the subtle science of the River Arno...or Jesus, sharing the keys to the kingdom of God at the edge of the Sea of Galilee.
There's something ancient and elemental about being on the water, something that sets our own inner tides moving with a slow, irresistible pull. Shifted by that current, profound truth can rise from the depths of a human soul to bob up suddenly above the surface, visible to us all.
Three summers ago, nine-year-old Christopher Dugan sat in a hammock beside his father, watching afternoon come to the Maine lake where their family was vacationing.
"I'm going to die," the boy announced. "So are you."
With a touching faith and a seriousness beyond his tender years, Christopher asked his father some hard questions: What is it like when we die? Where do we go? What if there really isn't a heaven? What if it's all a lie? And, he continued, if there is nothing more after death, what's the point of anything we do here? "You're a minister," Christopher said, "so you know about these things."
Fortunately for young Christopher, and for us all, Dugan knows a great deal indeed - and he shares his insight in this remarkable first book. He chronicles a summer-long series of father-and-son conversations that allowed the pair to think and talk openly about life and death, their mutual understanding deepening as the dialogue progressed. The reader, privileged to listen in, will find wisdom and comfort here, gently interwoven with glimpses of the ever-changing lake shore.
Jeffrey Dugan is the rector of a middle-sized church in Farmington, Conn. Challenged to explain some of the toughest concepts within the ken of humankind, however, he does not preach. He concedes that intellectual knowledge of theology "does litttle or nothing for a frightened little nine-year-old asking his father for help in overcoming the fear and foreboding that everything we value most in life comes to an abrupt and empty termination with death." Instead, Dugan draws from his own well of remarkable experiences and the conclusions that resulted. In the face of Christopher's fears, this loving father offers "responses that come from the heart; person-to-person, soul-to-soul."
This is a simple book, an entertaining book, but don't let that deceive you. Its message is artfully packaged, but very powerful, and its author crafts a first-person story with the deft touch of a master.
The introduction, a 17-page account of Dugan's own path to understanding, points to the distinct likelihood that young Christopher may have inherited his tendency for truth-seeking. During his years at Dartmouth College, majoring in physical anthropology, the author was dedicated to the pursuit of scientific fact. His goal was to become a physician-astronaut specializing in space medicine.
That goal changed in the space of five minutes, on a snowy night in 1973, when Dugan glimpsed a reality that science could not explain. He refocused his keen curiosity on matters of spirituality, and set off on a new path that eventually led him back to the Christian traditions of his childhood, and to the writing of this book.
There is a special gift within these pages for those who struggle with loss and grief. Because of that, and because of the tragedies that have shaken our nation in recent weeks, it seems that Dugan's words have appeared just when they are needed most. An unexpected chain of events, including an editor who left the forgotten manuscript on his office windowsill for more than a year, resulted in the book's Oct. 1 release date.
"Christopher's Summer" has appeared just as many Americans begin to look for the deeper meaning that underlies our day-by-day existence, pondering some of the same questions that a young boy posed to his father one summer afternoon, beside a lake.