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Informationen zum Autor Angela Sumegi is Assistant Professor of Religion at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She is the author of Dream Worlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism (2008) . Outside academia, she teaches Buddhist meditation and is the founder and director of a Canadian charity that supports Tibetan refugee children in India. Klappentext Death and dying are emotive subjects, and ones which are central to the traditions and lived realities of many of the world's religions today. This illuminating book examines how different religions understand death, dying, and the afterlife, drawing on examples from Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shamanism. Encountering death almost always prompts a host of questions: What happened, and why? What do we do now? Beginning with an exploration of these shared reactions, the book traces the answers developed by the world's major religions, exploring their views on the nature of death itself, the reasons for it, identities of those who die, religious rituals, and their differing perspectives on how the living should respond to death. The way in which different religions interpret the characteristics of the 'person' who lives and the 'person' who dies forms the central theme and primary organizing principle for the book. This emphasis on varying concepts of the 'self' or soul enables students to gain a broader, comparative understanding of the subject. "From primal to Daoist traditions, this book brings breadth and depth to major religious traditions on death and destiny. In-depth historical material and selected interviews with religious devotees bring theories to life. An easy yet informative style will speak to students very directly." -- Douglas Davies , Durham University "What makes this book especially valuable for readers are the conversations that end each chapter. These conversations that the author has with adherents of the various religious traditions that she describes give us a more complete picture of how each tradition understands death and life. This book is a welcome addition to the literature on death and dying." -- Amir Hussain , Loyola Marymount University and Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion Zusammenfassung This illuminating book examines how different religions understand death! dying! and the afterlife! drawing on examples from Christianity! Judaism! Hinduism! Buddhism! and Shamanism. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 Understanding Death 1 Return from the Dead 4 Debates and Definitions 9 Death and the Self 14 Ritual and Transformation 19 Notes 22 References and Further Reading 22 2 Primal Perspectives on Death 25 Soul Theories of Primal Peoples 28 The Destiny of Souls 34 Afterlife among theWarao 35 Rituals of Departure 40 A Conversation on Understanding Death 44 References and Further Reading 46 3 Death in the Ancient World 49 Egypt 51 Egyptian Soul Theory 52 Transforming the Body 54 Egyptian Afterlife 56 The Story of Osiris 58 Mesopotamia 61 Gilgamesh and the Search for Immortality 63 The Spirits of the Dead in Mesopotamian Culture 64 Persia 66 Zoroaster and the Evil of Death 67 Salvation for All 68 Notes 71 References and Further Reading 71 4 Jewish Perspectives on Death 73 The Beginning of Death 78 The Soul and Sheol 80 Resurrection and the World to Come 86 The Journey of the Soul 91 Rituals of Departure 97 A Conversation on Understanding Death 101 Notes 103 References and Further Reading 104 5 Christian Perspectives on Death 105 The Death of Jesus 107 Developments in Christian Thought on the Soul 111 Resurrection and Eternal Life 114 Heaven and Hell 119 Rituals of Departure 128 A Conversation on Understanding Death 131 Notes 133 References and ...
