The Things He Carried

by Stephen Cottrell

About the book

The narrative of Holy Week is powerful and painful, and because we know how the story ends it’s easy to gloss over the difficult details, and stay in the comfort zone of our understanding. Stephen Cottrell brings home, vividly and poignantly, the physical reality of the passion story. This is a book to stimulate thought, provoke discussion and create space for contemplation.

From the Introduction:
‘In order to understand the cross you need to stand under it, with the imagination as well as the mind. This book aims to help in that process, and however you use it – on your own or with others – I hope you will receive some small appreciation of just how much the cross weighs, and maybe even pick it up yourself.’

You can buy The Things He Carried here.

About the author

Stephen Cottrell is currently the Bishop of Chelmsford, and a key author of the Emmaus series. Born and brought up in Essex, before ordination he lived in South London, working in the film industry, and for a year at St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham. His many books include the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2004, I Thirst, and Do Nothing to Change Your Life: Discovering What Happens When You Stop.

Find out more about Stephen Cottrell and his SPCK titles here.

Questions about The Things He Carried

There are questions following each chapter in the book and these are reproduced below. First some general questions and activities related to the book. One way of using these in a group situation is to discuss in pairs and then share your thoughts with the whole group.

1. Which of the ‘things he carried’ speaks most powerfully to you? Which chapter moved you the most?

2. What do you ‘carry’? Write down and then discuss three ‘burdens’ that you carry with you: memories, regrets, pain etc. Do the same for three joyful, uplifting or hopeful things you carry.

3. In the introduction Stephen Cottrell writes: ‘In order to understand the cross you need to stand under it, with the imagination as well as the mind. With heart as well as head.’

4. What do you make of this suggestion; can you read the bible ‘with the heart’? How do you enter imaginatively into the text?

Questions from the book

Note: there is more reflective material at the end of each chapter in the book.

1. The Cross
How does it feel to be overburdened?
What is the heaviest load?
What is the greatest pain?
What does it mean to say the cross is a thing of beauty?

2. A crown of thorns
How does it feel to be ridiculed?
What are the sharpest words?
What does it mean to say Jesus is King?

3. A seamless robe
How does it feel to have a thing of beauty taken away from you?
How does it feel to stand alone?
What are the worst intrusions?
What does it mean to say the cross reveals the purposes of God?

4. His followers’ disappointments
How does it feel to be let down?
How does it feel to be misunderstood?
What is it like to think that all your work might be for nothing?
What does it mean to say Jesus was human like us?

5. The hopes of God
What is my part in this story?
How does it feel to have a vocation?
What sustains us in life?
Is it possible to love enemies and what would this look like?
What does it mean to help Jesus carry the cross?

6. The sins of the world
How does it feel to be hopeless?
How might it feel to have things put back together, or recreated into something even more beautiful?
How does it feel to be forgiven?
How does it feel to be put back together?
What is sin? How does it spoil things?
What does it mean to say Jesus dies for our sins?

7. Our sorrows
How does it feel to be carried?
What does it mean?How does it feel to be lost, or to suffer the pain of being dropped?
What does pain do to us?
What does it mean to say Jesus shared the pain and sorrow of the world?

8. A broken heart
How does it feel to be loved?
How does it feel to be found?
What does it mean to say we are saved by the cross of Christ?