Death and Dying in World Religions

What do the world’s religious traditions tell us about death, dying, bereavement and afterlife? While today, medical perspectives seem to dominate Western society’s understandings of these topics, for most of history and in many parts of the world, religious and spiritual frameworks inform how human beings view mortality and its place in the cosmos. This book provides an introduction to the wide variety of religious and philosophical traditions’s teachings and practices regarding death and dying. Written for college students with no prior background in the academic study of religions, it intends to widen appreciation of the contribution of diverse cultures and traditions, as it examines the meanings each attribute to dying, death and what comes after. While death and awareness of death are human universals, the contribution of this book is to broaden awareness of the multiplicity of beliefs, rituals, spiritual practices and communities that religions have provided, as persons worldwide have encountered death and dying.

The chapters begin with ancient civilizations – Mesopotamia and Greece – then move into presentations of the three “Abrahamic” traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The contributions of Asia are represented by chapters on Brahamic Hinduism, Buddhism, China and Japan. Finally, a contribution on Africa and African-Diaspora traditions completes the volume. Each of these includes a Bibliography and a short list of Study Questions; some also feature a Glossary