Facing Up to Mortality - Interfaith/interreligious Explorations

Late anthropologist Ernest Becker outlined a theory that a major function of culture is to provide answers to the Big Questions people pose in relation to the uniquely human recognition of death and mortality. In Facing Up to Mortality, each chapter interacts with Becker's theory from the perspective of a religious tradition or academic discipline.

List of contents

Introduction
Daniel Liechty
Chapter One:
God is Sometimes Great! The Glory and Shame of Religion
Sheldon Solomon and Spee Kosloff
Chapter Two:
The Nature of Consciousness:
A Nondual (Advaita) Dialogue with Ernest Becker
Anantanand Rambachan
Chapter Three:
Religion as Umbrella, Religion as Path:
A Buddhist Perspective on Death Denial and Life Transformation
David R. Loy
Chapter Four:
L'Dor v'Dor: The Intergenerational Style of Hebraic 'Immortality'
Paul Cantz
Chapter Five:
Heroism, Sacrifice, and Jewish Identity:
Exploring Rabbinic Readings of the Esther Story
Jonathan Cohen
Chapter Six:
Naming Our Incompleteness:
A Christian Encounter with Ideas of Ernest Becker
Daniel Liechty
Chapter Seven:
Death, Self, and Political Survival in Islam and Islamicate Contexts
Anas Malik
Chapter Eight:
The Sacred Cosmos: Transcendence Without Absolutism
Merlyn E. Mowrey

About the author

Daniel Liechty is professor of social work and distinguished lecturer in arts and sciences at Illinois State University.

Product details

• Authors: Daniel Liechty
• Assisted by: Daniel Liechty (Editor), Liechty Daniel (Editor), J. Dana Trent (Foreword)
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2021
• EAN: 9781793655424
• ISBN: 978-1-79365-542-4
• No. of pages: 186
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Death & Dying, Psychology, RELIGION / Ecumenism & Interfaith, RELIGION / Psychology of Religion, Religion: general, ecumenism, Sociology: Death & Dying