Afterlife Teaching from Stephen the Martyr: Conversations About the Spiritual Life

Early in 1974, a small group of religious friends began gathering periodically at the modest home of Thomas and Olive Ashman in Christchurch, New Zealand. "We would reverently pray for protection, and be silent," says the Rev. Michael Cocks, an Anglican priest from Christchurch. "Tom would sit upright in a chair, relaxed. After two or three minutes he would begin to pale and to breathe deeply. Then his body would give a slight jerk as the communicator who identified himself as the biblical figure, Stephen the Martyr, seemed to take over."This book records seven years of conversations with St. Stephen the Martyr, between 1974-80, Thomas Ashman being the channel.Stephen's teaching is in line with that of St. John and the Sermon on the Mount, the Perennial Philosophy, the Stoics, and with the thinking of some leading modern theoretical physicists. It is close to modern Franciscan teaching.Stephen focuses so much on Christianity's heart, that Evangelicals, Charismatics, Catholics, and Liberal Christians alike, could accept his spiritual guidance, and be led ever deeper in life in Christ.This Christ, while revealed in organised religion, is in all, through all, and above all.Many kinds of internal evidence, and the very spirituality have led linguists, scientists, theologians, and philosophers to affirm that the teaching is genuinely Stephen's. That he made himself known, and taught, in itself speaks volumes about the resurrection, and the reality of life in Spirit.His teaching relates to the main themes of Christianity: the Fall, the Cross, the Atonement, Salvation, Life in Christ, the Communion of Saints, Grace, Holy Spirit, Guidance, and Love. He teaches from the point of view of Spirit. His theology is close to that of St John. Yet Christ is universal, and not confined to Christianity.More information can be found at www.thegroundoffaith.net/stephen