Death and Religion in a Changing World

by Kathleen Garces-Foley (Editor)

This comprehensive study of the intersection of death and religion offers a unique look at how religious people approach death in the twenty-first century. Previous scholarship has largely focused on traditional beliefs and paid little attention to how religious traditions evolve in relation to their changing social context. Employing a sociological approach, "Death and Religion in a Changing World" describes how people from a wide variety of faiths draw on and adapt traditional beliefs and practices as they deal with death in modern societies. The book includes coverage of newly emerging social and religious phenomena that are only just beginning to be analyzed by religion scholars, such as public shrines, the role of the media, spiritual bereavement groups, and the use of the Internet in death practices.

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2005

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some really diluted surveys of death rituals throughout the great world relgions. I guess the only thing readers might find value in is the section of the book dealing with contemporary death rituals under phenomenological contexts. Like, the chapter about spontaneous shrines was really interesting, and so was the chapter on postmodern, personalized funerals. Otherwise, the content of the rest of the book is just too thin to give it my full appreciation. Ambitious endeavor, but maybe the book would have been better as a series of books on death rituals.