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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is one of the profoundest features of the Christian and Jewish way of being-in-the-world and being-in-history?

2. What are some people gifted with when someone is suffering?

3. Who met Nicholas at the airport?

4. What did Eric spend summers doing while in college?

5. Who told Eric's friends that he had died?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Nicholas say it is to be human?

2. Why is it necessary for some to see the body of the one who died?

3. What does Nicholas conclude when he asks himself if it matters that Eric's thesis was never finished?

4. What sacrament was celebrated at Eric's funeral?

5. When was Eric born and when did he die?

6. What did Nicholas and his family decide to do with Eric's things?

7. Why is there a hole in Nicholas' world after Eric's death?

8. How did the funeral help Nicholas' soul rest?

9. How does Nicholas say that he and the family can live as faithfully and authentically with Eric gone as they did when he was present?

10. Why does Nicholas say that the family took Eric for granted?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast what Nicholas and Eric lost because of Eric's premature death.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the benefits of suffering, using examples from the book.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast what Jesus and what the Stoics felt about mourning, as explained in this book. Use examples from the book.

(see the answer keys)

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