Forgetting Whose we Are: Alzheimer's Disease and the Love of God

Alzheimers disease - a degenerative disease of the central nervous system characterized especially by premature mental deterioration - is the most publicly visible and widely discussed form of a range of disorders known as senile dementia. The nature of Alzheimers disease especially its progressive debilitation of the memory raises key theological issues. What does it mean to be truly human? Does our ability to remember define who we are as persons? When the mind loses its ability to remember what happens to the life of the soul? When we forget God does God still remember us? Forgetting Whose We Are offers a Christian understanding of and response to the difficult theological spiritual and pastoral problems raised by Alzheimers disease. Filling an important gap in existing literature by directly confronting the theological challenges of Alzheimers disease to victims caregivers and their communities the book affirms the classic Christian doctrines that witness to the reality of grace and the promises of salvation even for those who can no longer remember themselves their families or their relationship with God.