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Death and Religion: The Basics provides a thorough and accessible introduction to dying, death, grief, and conceptions of the afterlife in world religions.
It leads readers through considerations of how we understand meanings of death and after-death, and the theories and practices attached to these states of being, with recourse to various religious worldviews: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Chinese Religions, and Native American belief systems. This inter-religious approach provides a rich, dynamic survey of varying and evolving cultural attitudes to death. Topics covered include:
- Religious perspectives of "the good death"
- Grief, bereavement, and mourning
- Stages and definitions of death
- Burial, cremation, and disposition
- Remembrance rituals
- Religious theories of the afterlife
- Death and technology
Featuring a glossary, suggestions for further reading in each chapter and key terms, this is the ideal text for students approaching the intersection of death and religion for the first time, and those in the fields of religious studies, thanatology, anthropology, philosophy, and sociology.
List of contents
Preface: An Introduction to the Topic and Methodology 1. The Good Death 2. The Process of Dying and the Definition of Death 3. Disposal 4. Grief, Bereavement, and Mourning 5. Mourning and Bereavement from a Religious Perspective 6. Afterlives and Afterdeaths: Remembrance and Ritual 7. Technological Afterlives 8. Conclusion Glossary Index
About the author
Candi K. Cann is an Associate Professor of Religion in the Honors College at Baylor University, USA. She chairs the Death, Dying, and Beyond committee for the American Academy of Religion, is a former Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University, and a Fulbright Scholar at Han Nam University in South Korea (2023). Check out her website for a full list of her many publications, talks and interviews: www.candikcann.com
Summary
As an accessible introduction to death, grief and conceptions of the afterlife in world religions, Death and Religion: The Basics is the ideal text for students approaching the intersection of death and religion for the first time, and those in the fields of religious studies, thanatology and anthropology.
