Chapter 1: When Death Arrives (p. 13-26)
1. Most Americans' first prolonged and engaged confrontation with death usually takes place when they
a. have watched hundreds of hours of television shows and movies where death is depicted.
b. lose their grandparents.
c. honor soldiers who have died in battle.
d. must care for their elderly parents.

2. The author believes that the main reason why many people are discouraged from fulfilling their familial obligations to their elderly parents is because they
a. live too far away.
b. don't want to get into disagreements with their siblings over parental care.
c. are unfamiliar with death.
d. are too wrapped up in an affluent and busy life.

Chapter 2: Gradual Dying and End-of-Life Care (p. 27-38)
3. Which of the following statements accurately reflects the authors view in this chapter?
a. Christians should hope in medicine's ability to provide healing for the elderly.
b. An elderly person's life should be preserved at all costs.
c. There comes a point when Christians should shift their focus from extending life to preparing for death.
d. There is little benefit in a slow death.

4. In surveys, most people state that they
a. would rather die sooner at home, than in a hospital bed kept alive artificially.
b. want doctors to do anything to keep them alive, even if it's just for a few more days.
c. are in favor of being on life-support machines, such as a ventilator.
d. believe that their deaths should come only after all aggressive means to keep them alive have been exhausted.

Chapter 3: Losing the Christian Death (p. 39-49)
5. Throughout church history, Christians prepared for a “good death”
a. by receiving family and friends who would sometimes witness the dying person's visions of heaven, Jesus, and family members who had died before them. Anna Vedder said, as she was dying, that she “beheld a place more splendidly decorated than the tongue of mortal could describe.”
b. by serving as a reminder that the source of death was sin, and the remedy for death was eternal life in Jesus Christ.
c. with an attitude toward death that was infused with hope, because they worshiped a Lord who had defeated death.
d. All of the above.

Chapter 4: The Individual, The Church, and Ars Moriendi (p. 51-68)
6. Which is NOT an example of the Christian art of dying?
a. 15th-century woodcuts depicting the temptations one would meet in the face of death (impatience, fear, etc.) and the means to overcome them.
b. Delaying putting a loved one into hospice for as long as possible.
c. Jesus, as He was dying on the cross, asking His disciple, John, to care for His mother.
d. A familiar child's prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

7. Which is NOT true about Martin Luther's “Sermon on Preparing to Die”?
a. It promoted being joyful in Christ rather than being worried about death.
b. It taught that one' deathbed is a place to battle the forces of evil.
c. It encouraged dying Christians to take communion as a reminder that Christ's victory over death is also their victory.
d. It was written at the request of Luther's friend who was worried about his death.

8. Historian Phillipe Aries says that the two characteristics of death in the Middle Ages were its familiar simplicity and public nature. What is beneficial about the public nature of a good death?
a. When death is public it makes it harder for the living to be afraid of death.
b. There is less mystery about death as we observe how the physical body ceases to function.
c. We can rehearse our own death, we can learn what to do when others we love face death, and we live better lives with eternity in mind.
d. All of the above.

9. According to Phillipe Aries' one-thousand-year history of Western attitudes of dying, which was NOT part of the grieving rituals they practiced?
a. Shutters were closed, candles were lit, prayers were said, and bells rang in the church steeples marking the loss to the community.
b. The bereaved spent most of their time grieving alone in the privacy of their homes.
c. The body or coffin was displayed outside, or later a notice hung from the door of the house.
d. Relatives, neighbors, and clergy gathered at a church service to remember the deceased, then proceeded to the cemetery, and then visited the bereaved in their homes, bringing food or comfort.

Chapter 5: The Spirituality of Dying (p. 69-84)
10. Those who are near death usually ___ supernatural experiences, including the appearance of spiritual beings or relatives who have died and have come to help them on their journey home.
a. invent
b. welcome
c. fear
d. question

11. Jim Harrell was married and the father of four children when he received the diagnosis of ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, in which Jim would slowly lose all ability to use his muscles. The author told Jim's story as an example of someone who
a. eventually came to view his terminal illness as God's way of bringing about spiritual renewal in his life.
b. obtained encouragement from specific Bible passages, such as II Corinthians 4:16-18: “Though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
c. had to decide to let God care for his family after his death.
d. All of the above.

Chapter 6: The Hardest Conversation You'll Ever Have (p. 85-93)
12. In keeping with a Christian "good death", how can a caregiver help a loved one decide: This is how I want to die?
a. By weighing the benefits and disadvantages of continuing to receive life-sustaining treatments in a hospital setting versus dying at home with less medical care, but among family and friends.
b. By leaving the main end-of-life conversations to the doctors.
c. By encouraging all their loved one to have a living will.
d. By showing their loved one the importance of living longer, for the sake of their extended family.

Chapter 7: Caring for the Dying (p. 95-115)
13. The most important thing to do for loved ones facing death is to
a. help them make difficult medical decisions.
b. hold out hope for their recovery.
c. be with them.
d. distract them from the uncomfortable process of dying.

14. After the author's Aunt Eileen died,he wondered what he could have done to comfort her as she lay dying. The director of the local hospice program said to him
a. that sometimes she doesn't know what to say or do around the dying.
b. that most people who are dying are not very aware of what is going on around them.
c. that sometimes there isn't anything to do, any task to do. Our presence is doing more than anything else that could be done.
d. that he should forgive himself for not doing more.

15. Which is NOT necessarily a factor that makes for a good death?
a. The dying person was a regular church goer.
b. The presence of family members who were perhaps also involved in the physical care of the dying person.
c. The dying person's confidence that God is with him or her.
d. Knowing when to stop medical care in order to seek a peaceful death.

16. Which is NOT true when only one family member has been doing the care-giving?
a. It is easier for the sole-caregiver since he or she doesn't have to take the time and frustration to make group decisions.
b. Care-giving is hard and often thankless work. But also holy work in a long line of Christian dedication to the sick and dying, a tradition that reaches back to the earliest churches.
c. It is often the sole-caregiver that recognizes a loved one's health problems as more than a series of one-time isolated health problems. They are symptoms that their loved one is dying.
d. It is normal for a sole care-giver to wish for the end to come or to feel relief when it does.

Chapter 8: The Christian Funeral (p. 117-126)
17. For a funeral to be truly Christian, what should be included?
a. There should be a visitation of the surviving family members.
b. There should be the reminder that we worship a God who has defeated death through the resurrection.
c. There should be a procession to the cemetery with words spoken over the deceased.
d. There should be a religious ceremony with hymns and Scripture readings.

Chapter 9: Grief and Mourning (p. 127-142)
18. The Yale Bereavement Study concluded all of the following EXCEPT
a. Feelings of yearning for the deceased loved one peaked at four months after their death, followed by anger.
b. Increased feelings of depression came at six months after the death of the loved one.
c. The stages of grief must be experienced in this order: disbelief, yearning, anger, depression, and acceptance.
d. The grieving process typically takes two years, and sometimes twice as long before a survivor feels as though life has reached a "new normal".

19. After C.S. Lewis lost his wife, Joy Davidson, he said, "An odd by product of my loss is that I'm aware of being an embarrassment to every one I meet." This is because his friends and acquaintances were uncomfortable around him because he had lost his wife.
The author suggests all of the following EXCEPT ___ that Christians can do today to help the bereaved mourn the loss of a loved one.
a. Reinstate mourning dress codes, clothing that signifies to the community a loved one has died.
b. Churches can list the names of mourners for a full year in their bulletins.
c. Churches could mark the annual anniversary of a death.
d. A church team could provide one meal each month during the year following a death.

20. According to Jewish rituals, following the funeral, mourners begin ___ of shiva, where they are not allowed to cook, do laundry, or clean house. They are to do nothing but grieve. The congregation visits daily to bring food and say prayers. After ___ , the mourners are required to rejoin the community by saying Kaddish, communal prayer, twice a day for the next eleven months.
a. three days
b. one week
c. two weeks
e. one month

21. Before she died of cancer, Pastor Rob Bugh's wife, Carol, wrote him a letter. She told him all of the following EXCEPT
a. You have been a great husband.
b. You will make it.
c. I want you to remarry.
d. Don't grieve for me. I'm going to heaven.

Chapter 10: A Culture of Resurrection (p. 143-169)
22. Rowan Greer says that the best way that the church can help the elderly is by
a. encouraging them to use their gifts for service and ministry.
b. helping them to be realistic in accepting their declining abilities.
c. helping the elderly step aside to let younger leaders emerge.
d. helping them to write their memoirs.

23. The author remembered having difficulty visiting a hospice Alzheimer's patient during meal times.
He then reflects that perhaps the hardest task of caring for old persons is
a. the difficulty of finding good people to care for them.
b. seeing how they are marginalized by others.
c. being faced with our own mortality, that the elderly and dying reflect our future selves.
d. not knowing what to do or say that will improve their situation.

24. Pastor Todd Friesen's intergenerational Mennonite Church in Lombard, IL, practices which of the following?
a. Having church members, including the elderly, give their testimonies, so everyone can appreciate the impact their lives have had on others.
b. Remembering every church member who has died with a funeral, then every year on All Saints' Day, when a young person reads aloud from a plaque the names of those church members who died that year.
c. Marking significant milestones in church members' lives such as: the birth of a child, assigning a mentor to every child 12 or older, school graduation, marriage, and retirement. This communicates the truth that God is with us during every stage of our lives, right up to our final breath.
d. All of the above.

Chapter 11: Living in Light of Death (p. 171-179)
25. For ten years, Joyce Tompkins put her career and aspirations on hold in order to take care of her father, a veteran of 3 wars who suffered a heart attack and a stroke, and her mother, who eventually died from breast cancer. At the end of this period of great sacrifice, Joyce said
a. she wished she had received more support from family and friends.
b. she was grateful for what she could do for her parents, but honestly wished it had not taken away from her career.
c. she had enough of caring for the elderly and wanted to do something else instead.
d. she was even ready for God to take her home, if that is what He wished to do.