RELI 2732 Lecture 10: Mar. 26, 2018 - Contemporary Views on Death
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
March 16th, 2018
Secularization and Contemporary Views of Death
Toy Walters Thesis’
1. Death in the modern world is an alienating and terrifying experience
• Grieving people should be kept private, older people are put in
homes
• Without the meaning that religion gives to death, there is social
discomfort and isolation in death
• The loss of religion has left people without strategies that once
helped them
• The Happy Death Moeet
o Dying and death were easier when people had religion to
fall onto
o Modern death is not as natural as it was in the past
o The public funerals of the past were psychologically
helpful
• It is difficult to come to any conclusion on Christian belief on
death (the thought of heaven is happy, but the thought of hell is
fearful)
• It could be said that religion causes happiness and fear
• Death in the modern period is not connected to death
o However, Walter says that religion says that death is
unnatural and modern medicine says it is
• CLAIM: Religious beliefs in heaven and help people to die
o How can you know what people believe?
• CLAIM: Community mourning and funerals of the past were
psychologically comforting
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