Synopsis
The relation between life and death is a subject of perennial relevance for all human beings, and indeed, the whole world and the entire universe, in as much as, according to the saying of ancient Greek philosophy, all things that come into being pass away. Yet it is also a topic of increasing complexity, for life and death now appear to be more intertwined than previously or commonly thought. Moreover, the relation between life and death is also one of increasing urgency, as through the twin phenomena of an increase in longevity unprecedented in human history and the rendering of death, dying, and the dead person all but invisible, people living in the industrialized and post-industrialized Western world of today have lost touch with the reality of death. This radically new situation, and predicament, has implications – medical, ethical, economic, philosophical, and, not least, theological – that have barely begun to be addressed. This volume gathers together essays by a distinguished and diverse group of scientists, theologians, philosophers, and health practitioners, originally presented in a symposium sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Preface
I: Perspectives from Astronomy, Chemistry, and Biology
1: Made of Star-stuff: The Origin of the Chemical Elements in Life - Alexei V. Filippenko
2: A Biochemical Perspective on the Origin of Life and Death - Luc Jaeger
II: Perspective from Anthropology
3: Immortality - Douglas Davies
III: Perspectives from Philosophy
4: Suffering Death - Emmanuel Falque
5: How Do We Become Fully Alive? The Role of Death in Henry’s Phenomenology of Life - Christina Gschwandtner
IV: Perspectives from Theology
6: Life and Death in the Age of Martyrdom - John Behr
7: New Life as Life out of Death: Sharing in the “Exchange of Natures” in the Person of Christ - Henry Novello
8: Is There Life before Death? - Conor Cunningham
V: Perspectives from Medicine and Bioethics
9: The Kenosis of the Dying: An Invitation to Healing - Daniel Hinshaw
10: On Medical Corpses and Resurrected Bodies - Jeffrey Bishop
Bibliography
About the Author
John Behr is the Dean of St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York. He has published numerous monographs, most recently an edition and translation of the fragments of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, and a monograph on Irenaeus.
Conor Cunningham, Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, serves as co-director of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy. He is the author of the award-winning Darwin’s Pious Idea: Why the Ultra-Darwinists and Creationists Both Get It Wrong (2010).
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