Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things

by Dale C. Allison Jr.

When he was 23 years old, Dale Allison almost died in a car accident. That terrifying experience dramatically changed his ideas about death and the hereafter. In Night Comes Allison wrestles with a number of difficult questions concerning the last things — such questions as What happens to us after we die? and Why does death so often frighten us?

            Armed with his acknowledged scholarly expertise, Allison offers an engaging, personal exploration of such themes as death and fear, resurrection and judgment, hell and heaven, in light of science, Scripture, and his own experience. As he ponders and creatively imagines — engaging throughout with biblical texts, church fathers, rabbinic scholars, poets, and philosophers — Allison offers fascinating fare that will captivate many a reader’s heart and soul.

Genres: Religion, Theology, Death, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Christianity, Spirituality

184 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2016

About the author

Dr. Dale C. Allison Jr., an Errett M. Grable professor of New Testament exegesis and early Christianity, has been on the faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary since 1997. Before then he served on the faculties of Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) and Friends University (Wichita, Kan.).

His areas of expertise include Second Temple Judaism, and he is the author of books on early Christian eschatology, the Gospel of Matthew, the so-called Sayings Source or Q, and the historical Jesus.

He has also written The Luminous Dusk, a book on religious experience in the modern world, and a full-length commentary on the Testament of Abraham. His most recently published works are The Love There That’s Sleeping: The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison, The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus, and Constructing Jesus: History, Memory, and Imagination. He is currently at work on a full-length commentary on the Epistle of James. He is married to Kristine Allison and they have three children.

Reviews

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

While many preachers resist delving into matters of eschatology, at least more progressive/liberal preachers, these matters remain of great interest to the broader populace, including many in our churches. Dale Allison is a New Testament professor at Princeton who has had a career-long interest in eschatology, and in "Night Comes" he explores such matters with wisdom that is rooted both in personal experience and deep scholarship.

You might say that the book centers on death and how we deal with it. Allison offers chapters on the fear of death that most of us encounter at some point. He notes how many are putting their hopes into the scientific possibility of extending life indefinitely. At the same time, this desire to resist death may have its own drawbacks. After a while, is this extended life worth living?

I was especially interested in chapter two, which deals with the question of resurrection. Allison notes that resurrection is out of style. Most prefer some form of immortality, but aren't too sure about anything body-related. It doesn't fit with science as we know it today, and besides immortality sounds more spiritual. What I appreciated here was Allison's support for resurrection as more than metaphor, without getting caught up in a narrow literalism. He notes that the resurrection isn't about the individual, but about the community.

From there he moves onto the always touchy subject of judgment. Once again, progressives tend to resist ideas of judgment, and yet the biblical story is filled with references to it. Not only that, but some form of judgment seems to be part of our makeup. He notes the stories of what he calls "life reviews" that are often connected to Near Death Experiences (NDE). References to such reviews comes from many cultures. Allison the biblical scholar notes that while judgment is present in the story and a seeming necessity to make sense of life, in the Christian view the judge is "wildly biased in favor of all the defendants" (p. 67).

Regarding the future, we do not know what it will be like like. But we need not be limited by ignorance of the details, if we can extend our imaginations. When we deal with eschatology, he notes that the bible isn't history written ahead of time. "They're rather artistic portrayals of what lies beyond the realm of our immediate, ordinary experience. Like icons or expressionist paintings, they aim not at picture-perfect representations but seek to convey meaning" (p. 83).

If we struggle with resurrection and judgment, most of us have even greater struggles with the idea of hell. I personally gave up on it decades back. Still it remains in our consciousness, even if most who retain belief no longer embrace an older vision that is torturous. Hell is something often understood to be in the mind -- it's something we choose rather than an imposed punishment. The most common vision today is similar to that of C.S. Lewis. Allison ultimately embraces a form of universalism, "even if, as the New Testament more than suggests, God allows some of us to carry our personal hells into the next life" (p. 119). But even if there is stuff to work out in the next life, that needn't go on forever. Ultimately his hope is that mercy triumphs over judgment.

Finally we come to heaven. He addresses the criticism of belief in heaven/afterlife that it some how keeps us from taking care of things on earth. That need not be the case. Simply placing hope that this isn't all there is doesn't keep us from embracing the call to take care of things in the hear and now. Addressing criticisms, he also addresses various visions of the heavenly realm. I found this fascinating. He notes that there are essentially three different visions of heaven. The first is what he calls "angelization." He shows that there has long been belief that humans and angels aren't all that different, and that we might even end up as angels. Angelic future is God-centered. The second vision he calls "social reunion." This is the hope that we will be reunited with loved ones. This is a more human-centered vision. Allison is attracted to it, even though he has concerns. Finally there is the idea of paradise, a vision of being drawn into what seems to be a natural world of great beauty. Each of these visions can be found in scripture, in theological discourse, and personal experience. In this final chapter he returns to the testimony of NDE. While there are many questions about such experiences, they have a revelatory pattern to them.

He closes the book with this reflection. Regarding the aches and pains that accompany aging, they "remind me that night comes. My hope is that light shines in the darkness" (p. 150). Indeed, that is a hope to have.

This is a fascinating book. It deals with issues that many of us wrestle with. He addresses questions that clergy face in relationship to those they minister to and with. He does so with candor and thoughtfulness. As a historian of seventeenth and eighteenth century English theology, I was more than taken by his regular reference to such figures as John Tillotson and other divines of that era. This is a book to read!!

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was excellent. I am tired of those who appeal to theological imagination and fail to show any - but I have no such complaints here. (I mean "imagination" is in the title, so. Like really, his take on divine partiality? Superb. And universalism? Totally intriguing. Oh and you should definitely read what he did with Peter.)

"Death is like life: it's not one thing but many." (p. 6)

"...then the cosmos is finally apathetic, and death can separate us from the love of God; and if that's so, then love doesn't endure all things but finally fails. Which cannot be." (p. 18)

"...our tradition hasn't been naively overconfident regarding human freedom... Saints know what it's like to do the very things they hate. They likewise testify to having been rescued and led by a Reality beyond themselves." (p. 53)

"There can be no privatization of hope... The eschatological kingdom isn't the unreal but the not-yet real. Someday 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done' will no longer be our prayer but our history." (p. 92)

"Our decisions need to be undone, not confirmed. We need to be saved despite ourselves. Even if we're allowed, in our freedom, to kindle the fires of hell and to forge its chains, isn't it God's part to break our chains and put out the fire? ...Human beings aren't unidirectional vectors but bundles of contradictions. Saints are sinners; sinners are saints... The modern hell, however, posits that, in the world to come, we keep moving int he direction we're already headed. Our momentum, so to speak, carries us up to heaven or down to hell. Yet what if, like me, you keep moving in circles?" (p. 117)

"While most understand that such images [of heaven] aren't to be taken seriously, that they're something like juvenile poetry, it's difficult not to call them to mind, and it's difficult to know what to put in their place. It's the pastor's task, however, to do just that, to put something in their place, something that's truly interesting, that's not 'minimalist, meagre, and dry.' To be boring is to be irrelevant." (p. 122)

"Those for whom death and what might lie beyond are vital concerns may not feel much allegiance to a church or a pastor with an exclusively or almost exclusively imminent deity, a deity who, in sermon after sermon, remains nebulous about the future, uncommitted as to where the story might be headed." (p. 148)

"On occasion, however, the adventure seems stale, and it's not so easy to feel grateful. The world, which is ever full of wonder, isn't the problem. It's rather me. I repeatedly resolve to do better, and I fail. I set out to pursue the good, the true, and the beautiful, and my attention wanders. I aspire to love God with all my heart and soul and mind, and my neighbors as myself, but I get distracted. My incessant failures are more than frustrating, and sometimes I grow weary of myself. My fatigue can become such that I long to quit this stage for some other stage, to wake up in a new and different world, to swap my current self for something better, to undergo whatever will turn Romans 7 - "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it"- into nothing but a bad memory." (p. 149)

[Jesse Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the introduction to “Night Comes,” Dale Allison contrasts the book with his previous work, saying that it “doesn’t consistently aspire… to persuade through the arguments of an evenhanded historian. It’s rather, in large measure, a personal theological exploration. It’s an attempt to move from reconstructing the past to pondering the future.” Without a doubt, “Night Comes” is more pastoral than books like “The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, and History” or “Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet.” It speaks mostly to the faithful, contains quite a few anecdotes and self-confessed opinions, and doesn’t dive deeply into skeptical counterpoints. Consequently, you might expect that an atheist reader (like me) wouldn’t appreciate it. But that is Allison’s gift. Whether you’re religiously inclined or not, you can’t help but marvel at the vast territory his writing covers.

“Night Comes” may be a “personal theological exploration,” but that’s a bit of a misnomer; it’s as thoroughly researched and crammed with top-notch scholarship as any of Allison’s works. The author’s knowledge is encyclopedic and, whether he’s analyzing scripture or canvassing medieval history or discussing neuroscience, I find myself wondering: “How on earth did he find and read all these sources?” The prose, too, is characteristically lovely, the tone it strikes deeply refreshing. When was the last time you read a theological or philosophical book by a brilliant author that contained more questions than assertions? If I’m drawn to anything in Allison’s ouvre, it’s the humility with which he communicates. As he ponders death, resurrection, judgement, hell, and heaven, surveying millennia of Christian thought on these issues and asking what it all might mean, Allison repeatedly confronts his biases and voices his doubts. He doesn’t want you to take his word for it. He wants you to wrestle, as he himself has wrestled, with life’s most perplexing mysteries.

So, if you’re looking for an easy read on faith and mortality, you might want to look elsewhere. This book offers no easy answers, and it draws few conclusions. As Allison himself says in the closing chapter: “Paul, although an apostle, confessed that the future remained dim to his sight. The author of 1 John agreed: ‘what we will be has not yet been revealed’ (3:2). Our tradition has been at its best when it’s gone along, when it’s conceded how little we know.” Yet if you want to have your thoughts provoked, your faith shaken up, or your view of the world expanded, accompanying this curious pilgrim is a venture well worth your time.

[Ivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I agree with a friend: "I am at a loss as to any real usefulness for this book. The methodology is deficient, the history selective, the suggestions at times bizarre, the tone noncommittal, the arguments occasionally contradictory, the Bible eviscerated of authority, and the gospel confused."

[Ted Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story by a major religious scholar

[Matthew C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd Reading July 2025:
I resonated with Allison even more deeply on the second read-through.

1st Reading July 2023:
This was a deeply enjoyable experience. There is something about Dale Allison's curious and mystical writing style, intermingled with historical and philosophical nuggets, which takes me in. Though I would be cautious about giving this book to a new or immature believer, I found it to ask a lot of right questions about the most tender of topics: the nature of the hereafter.

[Marnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting, imaginative, provocative. Sometimes I wished he would take a stand on something, but the ambiguity of it was simultaneously helpful. Allison is a deeply hopeful writer.

[Sam Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A theological memoir of sorts, infused with historical, biblical, and cultural insights. An excellent read about the complex and often neglected topic (at least in the more academic sense) of the last things and beyond.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent complement to Gerhard Lohfink, “Is This All There Is? On Resurrection and Eternal Life” (Liturgical Press, 2017), which this author (Dale Allison) blurbed as follows: “This is exactly what one expects from Lohfink, the distinguished biblical scholar and respected theologian: a book that is hugely informed, consistently provocative, conscientiously pastoral, and—in the best sense of the word—imaginative.”
Lohfink’s book (which I translated into English) eschews the literature on near-death experiences that Allison uses to good effect; L. Is no less “down to earth,” but he builds his presentation on his own studied conviction that resurrection takes place in death. Allison cites that conviction but spends more time weighing and refuting positions he rejects as well as some he accepts. Allison is PCUSA; Lohfink is RC. Hence I commend the two books to be read together for a fully rounded immersion in the subject — which, I assure the doubtful, is quite the opposite of gloomy.

[Ken Orton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good and complete look at life after death, contact with the dead, imagination of what could be, the last things you'll experience when dying, what's there after you die (if anything) and dozens of quotes to be underlined that transcend the Book (capitalized because it's probably what you call the Bible). Allison is the formerly rare but now becoming more seen - a real Christian who looks into alternate interpretations of the Scriptures as well as things beyond what the Scriptures tell you. If you have had questions that are shot down as frivolous by dispensational, evangelical, inerrancy churches there are answers and more questions. Go beyond what your church, pastor and fellow church members say. Think for yourself. This is as good a place as any to start.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A profound and beautiful set of meditations on Christian eschatology, from one of the leading biblical scholars of our day. For anyone who knows his work on the historical Jesus, Allison is so brutally honest, he defies the spectrum of liberal versus conservative in many regards. For instance, he approaches everything with such a methodical sensibility, he casts doubt on a lot of liberal notions of the Gospels. That certainly does not mean he is conservative in the simplistic sense, but it does mean he is willing to be honest about things rather than being ideologically committed. He makes easy work of Marcus Borg as well as N. T. Wright. In its gentle refusal of easy answers, his work has earned my respect.

In this book, he mediates on the connection of mortality, resurrection, judgement, utopia, hell, and heaven to faith. Each chapter is a set of ponderings loosely connected with the chapter's theme. Allison's command of theological history, philosophy, poetry, pop-culture is impressive, making for a rich feast of food for thought.

Now, I think the average evangelical will find Allison quite challenging. In fact, I read one review that went bananas over it, finding its doubts disconcerting. However, for those of us that have been harmed by end times fanaticism, if you grew up in a household that thought, for instance, the year 2000 was possibly the end or that the Pope was the Anti-Christ, etc., you live with a deep sense of mistrust about a lot of eschatological claims. In this regard Allison's skepticism and yet simple faith is refreshing.

He is skeptical about just how much data about the end we can glean from the Bible, given that it arises from certain cultural conditions, written in highly symbolic genres like apocalyptic, displays diversity and dynamism among its many writers, etc. He is profoundly allergic to literalism, whether that is simplistic accounts of the resurrection, the arrival of the eschaton, the millennium, or hell. Yet, since he has a high view of religious experience, this leads him into arguing for the validity of the afterlife, the soul, heaven, etc. One feature of this book is its modesty in how it approaches hope. I teach eschatology, and so, the book left me wondering about all sorts of things. I share his mistrust of literalism, but still gravitate to thinkers like Jurgen Moltmann and Paul Fiddes for more fleshed out accounts of eschatology.

Yet, his honestly leads to a deep sense of humility. For him, human mortality is met only with a deep sense of trust in God. There are lots of things about the end that we simply do not know, but in the end, our end, I see no other response than the sentiment of Christ: "into your hands I commend my spirit."

[James Buccini · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title is drawn from John 9:4 “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” The subtitle “death, imagination, and the last things” accurately describes an extended meditation on these matters by a down-to-earth New Testament scholar. In a different book, “The Evangelical Imagination” by Karen Swallow Prior, we see an effort to uncover some cultural influences on the evangelical imagination. Similarly, Allison illustrates how cultural influences in different historical times and places have led to the waxing and waning of eschatological expectations and their interpretation and reinterpretation over time. He reminds us that it provides perspective to become acquainted with those who promoted or discouraged these expectations.

There is much to ponder and more to imagine. The Bible and its derivative interpretive traditions cannot and do not offer concrete detailed forecasts. Yet, when we engage seriously with the Bible over time, there’s opportunity to encounter the true author behind the text, and let those interactions shape and form the imagination—I think this describes Allison (himself) very well. He shares personal stories and beliefs, his experiences and those of others. He believes “what we do while it is day” does matter. While we lack specific details, we have the gift of a Spirit-filled imagination, and it shouldn’t be left to atrophy.

Allison opens his final chapter with this quote by David Brown, “The imagination can both enliven and destroy the plausibility of belief”. Allison concludes, “… night comes. My hope is that light shines in the darkness.” A beautiful ending; hope built on Biblical faith; an imagination that enlivens its plausibility, and a reminder not to waste the day sweating the small stuff—chasing details that, paradoxically, may serve to both impoverish imagination and diminish faith.

[Daniel Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read. It's more a personal engagement with questions about the end (resurrection, judgment, heaven, hell), and the author's mature reflection, than a straight biblical argument for some particular view of these things. You don't have to land the same way on everything (or even share all the same premises) to appreciate the very wide-ranging engagement with the Bible, psychology, religious history, personal experience, etc. At the least, it raises questions that many haven't thought of, and even fewer have pursued to the same degree that the author has.

[Nathan Harden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Night Comes

Allison provides great scholarship on what the title of the book suggests: death, imagination, and last things. He wholeheartedly embraces the imagination rather than reducing everything to philological precision; the concept of heaven and hell is so beyond the limits of the human mind it must be talked about using parabolic and imaginative language. Like Allison, I’m a hopeful agnostic when it comes to the matter of life after death. I’m unsure of what is to come but I know the loving God who saw me through my birth will see me through my death.

[Lee Downen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book. Allison calls it a "personal theological exploration" that contains "some scattered observations and suggestions on subjects that continue to absorb and vex me" (ix). He draws on an impressive knowledge of Scripture, theology, science, and religious experience to reflect upon the last things: death, resurrection, divine judgment, hell, and heaven. He gave me much to ponder and imagine.

[Kendall Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely insightful and interesting, as always. Allison is a superb writer and scholar. His reflections on death, heaven, hell, and life after death are well-informed both historically and theologically. I don't always agree with Allison. In fact, my main frustration is that Allison sometimes takes some of his mainline protestant assumptions for granted when he is more critical of other tradition's assumptions. That caveat aside, this is a fascinating and stimulating book.

[George Kogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was both brilliant and frustrating to read. Too many data points to the point of drowning the reader, but Allison’s knowledge of eschatological perspectives is encyclopedic. I wish there was more exegesis on selected biblical texts. Overall, chapter 4 is the most powerful. Allison calls the reader to emulate Jesus’s idealism, practice critical distancing, and permit our theocentrically idealistic vision of the future to inform our missional engagement with the present.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is almost like just having a conversation with the author - it’s kind of stream-of-consciousness. He leaves some questions unanswered, goes down some rabbit trails, and doesn’t always wrap everything up neatly. It takes some getting used to, but I thought it was worth it. The last two chapters are particularly thought provoking.

[Bobby Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very personal and intellectually honest survey of theological issues related to what awaits us after death. Very thought provoking, even though the book is rather brief and non-academic. Dale Allison is a great scholar, which comes through in his personal wrestling with such big questions that lack simple answers.

[Marc Axelrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections on death and the afterlife

For Allison, experience, scripture, and hope are equally authoritative. Heaven is a paradisiacal landscape, hell is hopefully temporary- i will stick with Scripture

[Levi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a dense book to get through, but I really liked the thoughts it brought up and the discussions I participated in because of it. Worth thr effort for sure.