Augustinus’ omgang met verlieservaringen

This paper discusses Augustine’s dealings with the death of a friend and that of his mother Monica, as told in his Confessions. Neoplatonists are uncertain about the afterlife; death ends it all for secularists; Augustine has hope, for death is not the end. One grieves over the death of a loved one, but not without given the promise of everlasting life. Augustine places this life in the next in God’s grace. The sorrow over the passing of a loved one evidences the transience of this existence; Christian hope looks beyond time to eternity.