The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying

Few issues apply universally to people as poignantly as death and dying. All religions address concerns with death from the handling of human remains, to defining death, to suggesting what happens after life. The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying provides readers with an overview of the study of death and dying. Questions of death, mortality, and more recently of end-of-life care, have long been important ones and scholars from a range of fields have approached the topic in a number of ways. Comprising over fifty-two chapters from a team of international contributors, the companion covers: - funerary and mourning practices; - concepts of the afterlife; - psychical issues associated with death and dying; - clinical and ethical issues; - philosophical issues; - death and dying as represented in popular culture. This comprehensive collection of essays will bring together perspectives from fields as diverse as history, philosophy, literature, psychology, archaeology and religious studies, while including various religious traditions, including established religions like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism as well as new or less widely known traditions such as the Spiritualist Movement, the Church of Latter Day Saints, and Raëlianism. The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, philosophy and literature.

Christopher M. Moreman is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies at California State University, East Bay, USA.

List of Contributors Introduction - Christopher M. Moreman Section 1: Religious Approaches to Death and the Afterlife 1. Catholic Views of the Afterlife - Diana Walsh Pasulka 2. Protestant Views of the Afterlife - Mark S. Sweetnam 3. Mormon Views of the Afterlife - Daniel Belnap 4. Christian Funerary Traditions - Thomas G. Long 5. Jewish Views of the Afterlife - Dan Cohn-Sherbok 6. Jewish Funeral and Mourning Practices - Vanessa L. Ochs 7. Muslim Views of the Afterlife - David Cook 8. Funerary Culture in Islam - Amila Buturovic 9. Zoroastrian Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - Almut Hintze 10. Sikh Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - Arvind-Pal S. Mandair 11. Hindu Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - T. S. Rukmani 12. Jaina Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - Peter Flügel 13. Theravada Buddhist Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - Rachelle M. Scott 14. Tibetan Buddhist Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - Matthew T. Kapstein 15. Shinto and Death: From Cultural Roots to Contemporary Thought - Stuart D. B. Picken 16. Early Chinese Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - Mu-chou Poo 17. Contemporary Daoist Afterlife Beliefs and Funerary Practices - Adeline Herrou 18. North American Indigenous Afterlife Beliefs - Joseph A. P. Wilson 19. African Afterlife Beliefs - Zayin Cabot 20. Overcoming Death in New Religious Movements - Susan J. Palmer 21. Afterlife Beliefs in the Spiritualist Movement - Walter Meyer zu Erpen 22. Death and the Afterlife in the Raëlian Religion - Erik A. W. Östling & James R. Lewis Section 2: General Beliefs and Practices 23. Heavens and Hells - Eileen Gardiner 24. Reincarnation - James A. Santucci 25. Mysticism - Thomas Quartier 26. The American Cemetery - Albert N. Hamscher 27. Cremation - Douglas J. Davies 28. Mummification - Heather Gill-Frerking 29. Digital Memorial - Candi K. Cann Section 3: Liminal States and Liminal Beings 30. Near-Death Experiences - Gregory Shushan 31. Past-life Memories - Jim B. Tucker 32. Ghosts - Owen Davies 33. Angels - John Charles Arnold & Tony Walter 34. The Undead: Vampires and Zombies - John Edgar Browning 35. Animals - Barbara R. Ambros & Laura Hobgood 36. Organ Donation and Spirit Possession - Lesley A. Sharp Section 4: On Dying 37. Defining Medical Death - James L. Bernat 38. The Death Awareness Movement - Lucy Bregman 39. Conceptual Approaches to Understanding the Dying Process - Kenneth J. Doka 40. The Cross-Cultural Study of Grief - Dennis Klass 41. A "Good Death" in Hospice Palliative Care - Harold Coward & Elizabeth Causton 42. Assisted Dying - Paul Badham Section 5: Additional Ethical Considerations 43. Suicide: Psychopathology, Existential Choice, or Religious/Cultural Influences - Mark M. Leach & Frederick T. L. Leong 44. Martyrdom - Paul Middleton 45. The Psychology of Mass Murder and Serial Killing - Katherine Ramsland 46. Abortion - Daniel C. Maguire 47. Intellectual Disability and the End of Life - Laura A. Kicklighter 48. Epidemic - Joseph P. Byrne Section 6: Additional Scholarly Perspectives 49. Philosophical Perspectives - Steven Luper 50. Anthropology and Death - Douglas J. Davies 51. Mortuary Archaeology - Zoë Crossland & J. Suzi Wilson 52. Death in Western Art and Literature - Christina Staudt