Death, Ritual, and Belief

The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites

Douglas Davies, Douglas J. Davies

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780826454843
• eBook ISBN: 9781441112798
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Describing a great variety of funeral ritual from major world religions and from local traditions, this book shows how cultures not only cope with corpses but also create an added value for living through the encouragement of afterlife beliefs. The explosion of interest in death in recent years reflects the key theme of this book - the rhetoric of death - the way cultures use the most potent weapon of words to bring new power to life. This new edition is one third longer than the original with new material on the death of Jesus, the most theorized death ever which offers a useful case study for students. There is also empirical material from contemporary/recent events such as the death of Diana and an expanded section on theories of grief which will make the book more attractive to death counsellors.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface to Second Edition
• Introduction
• 1 Interpreting Death Rites
• 2 Coping with Corpses: Impurity, Fertility and Fear
• 3 Theories of Grief
• 4 Violence, Sacrifice and Conquest
• 5 Eastern Destiny and Death
• 6 Ancestors, Cemeteries and Local Identity
• 7 Jewish and Islamic Destinies
• 8 Christianity and the Death of Jesus
• 9 Near-Death, Symbolic Death and Rebirth
• 10 Somewhere to Die
• 11 Souls and the Presence of the Dead
• 12 Pet and Animal Death
• 13 Book, Film and Building
• 14 Offending Death, Grief and Religions
• 15 Secular Death and Life
• Bibliography
• Index