Death and Immortality

Catalog description

Taught by GTU. This class will consider the related concepts of death and immortality primarily from a Swedenborgian perspective. In addition to Swedenborg's writings on death and immortality and the legacy of these writings in modern western conceptions of an afterlife, readings will engage medical and pastoral approaches to the end of life, perspectives on near death experiences, and beliefs concerning the afterlife from different religious traditions. This interdisciplinary approach will allow an engagement with those currently ministering to the dying such as hospice chaplains and pastors, as well a historical study of the influence of Swedenborgian views on notable readers such as Immanuel Kant, William Blake, Honoré de Balzac, Helen Keller and Houston Smith. Assignments will also engage artistic and cinematic treatments of death and/or immortality.