The Meanings of Death (Canto original series) - Softcover

Bowker, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521447739 ISBN 13: 9780521447737

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1993

Synopsis

In The Meanings of Death, John Bowker offers a major contribution to debates about the value of death and its place in both Western and Eastern religions. Examining the themes of friendship and sacrifice in the world's major religions, Bowker argues that there are points of vital contact with secular understandings of death, and that religious and secular attitudes can support and reinforce one another. An affirmative recovery of the value of death is important in our response to bereavement, and in the treatment of the terminally ill. By indicating how value can be maintained at the limit of life, without a search for illusory compensation in an afterlife beyond it, Bowker enriches our experience and understanding of the 'final question' in a way which is always sensitive and often moving.

About this title

Book Description:

A major contribution to debates about the value of death and its place in Western and Eastern religions is presented by this work's belief that religious and secular attitudes can support and reinforce one another through their attitudes towards death.

From Library Journal:

With verve and understated humor, Bowker ( Problems of Suffering in Religions of the World , LJ 6/15/70) critiques reductionistic thinking about the relationship between religion and death. His specific target is the "compensatory" view, which holds that religion, arising out of the terror that accompanies the consciousness of death, posits a desirable existence beyond death that compensates for the pain and tragedies of life. His analysis of the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism uncovers much richer and more varied responses to the fact of death than the compensatory model allows. Bowker concludes with a call for the recognition and acceptance of death as the condition of the possibility of life as we know it. His largely convincing argument should find an audience in both public and academic libraries.
- Steve Gowler, Wofford Coll., Spartanburg, S.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0521447739
• ISBN 13: 9780521447737
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260