Religious Encounters With Death: Insights from the History and Anthropology of Religions

This book richly explicates a relatively new scholarly awareness of the wealth of ethnographic and historical materials concerning death, and of the possibilities involved in exploring the religious perspectives reflected in such materials. Insights are presented into many of the ways in which humans in various parts of the world have encountered death, come to terms with it, and -- in some sense -- transcended it.Following a general introduction to the psychological, linguistic, literary, artistic, and religious aspects of confrontation with death, there are two major chapters on mythic and sacramental responses, by Mircea Eliade and Victor Turner. These are followed by explorations into individual and communal encounters with death in a variety of traditions: Aztec, Muslim, Zoroatrian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Bugandan, and Christian. Changes in these traditions are discussed, with attention to the impact of such events as the Nazi Holocaust and American Presidential assassinations.