Death and the Afterlife

Catalog description

This course surveys death- and afterlife-related beliefs, practices, and symbols across a wide range of religious traditions. Topics to be explored include religious conceptions of death, the soul, and the afterlife (e.g., salvation, liberation, reincarnation); death and funerary rituals; religious perspectives on bioethical issues (e.g., suicide, euthanasia, organ donation); religious interpretations of near-death experiences; and the historical changes in (and challenges to) death- and afterlife-related beliefs and practices