Patterns of Transcendence: Religion, Death, and Dying

This cross-cultural book examines social, religious, and cultural approaches to death and dying across Eastern and Western cultures and religious traditions. Organization of the book begins with an examination of death and dying among non-literate peoples in different parts of the world, then covers Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, and Japanese approaches, Western patterns of transcendence (ancient Middle East, Judaic, Christian, and Islamic), and concludes with a chapter on death and dying in contemporary America. It discusses four patterns of transcendence: ancestral, experiential, cultural, and mythic.

1. Religion, Death, and Dying. 2. Indigenous Transcendence. 3. Asian Transcendence. 4. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. 5. Abrahamic Transcendence. 6. The Divine Comedy. 7. Living Transcendence. Index.