Death Attitudes

A Feminist “Nutt” Point of View by Shannon Nutt

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on Feminism and Religion project

This is the first blog post I have written, so the concept of being a blogger is a little foreign to me.  But I... more This is the first blog post I have written, so the concept of being a blogger is a little foreign to me.  But I will just jump in!

I grew up in a religious house that became far more religious after my mother passed away from brain cancer when I was thirteen.  My single father became heavily involved in the Lutheran Church, thinking this was the best way to raise his two daughters.  I was happy to go to church and get the structure that the church provided.  I was also grateful that I went to a church that had a female pastor.  Lacking a mother, it was nice to have a strong female role model who was breaking into the “boys’ club” that was the church.  Having found a postitive, female role model, I was really upset when I heard very conservative members of other churches and my own family say that women have no business speaking or leading people in church.

Where do Cats Go?: Reflections on Death Post Patriarchal Christianity by Sara Frykenberg

by Feminism and Religion

Originally posted on the Feminism and Religion project.

The reason I am speaking about death today is two-fold.  First, I have been somewhat preoccupied with the concept... more The reason I am speaking about death today is two-fold.  First, I have been somewhat preoccupied with the concept of death since entering a new decade of my life.  I no longer believe in the evangelical vision of heaven I learned about in my youth; but as an uncomfortable “un”-Christian, I also have no satisfactory vision to replace it.  Or rather, there are many visions I find appealing, but none that I “believe in,” as I had believed in heaven.  My family is getting older, my parents have been sick in the last few years, and I often feel that I have more to lose now than I used to.

My second reason for considering death today is that last Wednesday, Mimi, our family cat of 24 years—yes, 24—passed away.  After spending all nine of her lives living, Mimi could no longer eat and was suffering.  My mother had her put down after we all said goodbye; we held a funeral for her and buried her among the lilies in our yard, her home.

Vilhauer, R.P. (2010). Life-threatening illness and the family. In Craft-Rosenberg, M. (Ed.), Sage Encyclopedia of Family Health. Los Angeles: Sage.

by Ruvanee Vilhauer

Contact vilhauerr@felician.edu for the manuscript

Je serai fusillé demain. Les dernières lettres des patriotes belges et français fusillés par l'occupant. 1914-1918

by Emmanuel Debruyne

Chapple, R. M. 2012 Workingman’s Dead: Notes on some 17th to 19th century memorials, from the graveyards of Killora and Killogilleen, Craughwell, Co. Galway, Ireland. Part I Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Death attitudes across the life-span: The development and validation of the Death Attitude Profile (DAP)

by Paul T. P. Wong

A Passing Glance: Encounters with Deadness and Dying

by Sylwia Chrostowska

published in Beauty and the Abject (Peter Lang)

Where do Cats Go?: Reflections on Death Post Patriarchal Christianity by Sara Frykenberg

by Feminism and Religion

originally posted in the Feminism and Religion Project

The reason I am speaking about death today is two-fold.  First, I have been somewhat preoccupied with the concept... more The reason I am speaking about death today is two-fold.  First, I have been somewhat preoccupied with the concept of death since entering a new decade of my life.  I no longer believe in the evangelical vision of heaven I learned about in my youth; but as an uncomfortable “un”-Christian, I also have no satisfactory vision to replace it.  Or rather, there are many visions I find appealing, but none that I “believe in,” as I had believed in heaven.  My family is getting older, my parents have been sick in the last few years, and I often feel that I have more to lose now than I used to.

My second reason for considering death today is that last Wednesday, Mimi, our family cat of 24 years—yes, 24—passed away.  After spending all nine of her lives living, Mimi could no longer eat and was suffering.  My mother had her put down after we all said goodbye; we held a funeral for her and buried her among the lilies in our yard, her home.

My sisters and myself were very, very saddened by Mimi’s passing; but my mother took it hardest of all.  Mimi had been her companion, her friend, her lap warmer, her snuggle buddy, her alarm clock and, we often joked, her favorite child for over two decades.  I wanted to comfort my mother; but my protest that it didn’t matter what the (her) Church said, Mimi was with the God/dess, was maybe, not very helpful.  It perhaps, only reminded her that in her view, I too am not going to heaven.

voice from SHRAYAN _ 'Wilful fasting to peaceful death' _ written by ADINATH CHATTOPADHYAY _ posted by PATHIK BASU

by Pathik Basu

The writer of the essay is Sri Adinath Chattopadhyay and it was published in SHRAYAN, a reputed magazine of Bengal. In... more The writer of the essay is Sri Adinath Chattopadhyay and it was published in SHRAYAN, a reputed magazine of Bengal. In this essay, we talked about the freedom of death, of which Ivan Illich had some interesting thoughts. As we try to extract happiness and freedom from life, the same we should and ought to have from death. Some people have tried to adopt this idea in their lives and practiced that in the end of their life too. We get to know about some of their experiences in this essay. All these are real-life incidents. The author is well acquainted with all these people and he is presenting us the incidents of their journey towards eternity.  – Pathik Basu, Editor, SHRAYAN.

Los fusilamientos en la literatura popular de Santiago de Chile, c.1880-1930

by Nacho Pérez

Published in electronic review Pensamiento Critico No. 3, Chile, 2003.

This articles studies the view the popular classes had of those condemned to death at the end of the nineteenth... more This articles studies the view the popular classes had of those condemned to death at the end of the nineteenth century. The impact that the trial, the law sentence and the subsequent execution of prisoners had on popular literature of that time is analysed together with its relation to popular urban culture representations, From this point of view, the executions can be understood as a discursive field in which the punitive logic of the State collided with the symbolic inversion of the criminal, converted into a popular hero or canonized after the execution itself.The intense debate that executions brought about among the lower classes of Santiago can be interpreted as a public ritual under a sacrificial matrix that has a close relationship with the symbolism of violent deaths and the cult of the animitas in Chile. From this point of view, the evolution of popular opinion from that of an initial repulsion to that of the posthumous canonization of those condemned can be read as the different stages by which the condemned becomes a sacrificial hero than incarnated the internal violence of society and who's destiny is to become the nexus between earthly misery and the miraculous abundance of the heavens.

Death as Transformation

by Rebecca Broadbent

MA Philosophy Dissertation

Psychometric Properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) Among Terminally Ill Cancer Patients

by Kenneth Royal

Royal, K. D., & Elahi, F. (2011). Psychometric Properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) Among Terminally Ill Cancer Patients. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 29(4), 359-371.

Research conducted with the terminally ill population in relation to death anxiety is rare and mostly outdated. The... more Research conducted with the terminally ill population in relation to death anxiety is rare and mostly outdated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the widely used Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) on a sample of terminal cancer patients. Additionally, validation studies of the DAS have exclusively used traditional statistical methods for analysis. The current study utilized an item response theory technique (IRT), namely the Rasch Rating Scale model for data analysis. The methodology employed may be useful for other researchers conducting validation studies from an IRT perspective.

Wisdom, religiosity, purpose in life, and death attitudes of aging adults

by Monika Ardelt

Published in Tomer, Adrian (Ed); Eliason, Grafton T. (Ed); Wong, Paul T. P. (Ed), (2008). Existential and spiritual issues in death attitudes, (pp. 139-158). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, xxvi, 466 pp.

The main points of this chapter can be summarized in the following points: 1. Analyses of survey data of 164 older... more The main points of this chapter can be summarized in the following points: 1. Analyses of survey data of 164 older hospice patients, nursing home residents, and community dwelling adults (58+) revealed that it is important to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity when studying the effects of religiosity on attitudes toward death in old age. 2. An intrinsic religious orientation had a positive effect on approach and escape acceptance of death but was unrelated to fear of death, death avoidance, and neutral acceptance of death. 3. By contrast, an extrinsic religious orientation was related to greater fear of death and death avoidance but also had positive effects on neutral and escape acceptance of death. 4. Only wisdom and a sense of purpose and meaning in life appeared to reduce older adults' fear and avoidance of death even if they were terminally ill or physically disabled.

Effects of Religion and Purpose In Life on Elders' Subjective Well-Being and Attitudes Toward Death

by Monika Ardelt

Journal of Religious Gerontology, Vol 14(4), 2003, 55-77.

Although religiosity tends to help older people to cope with physical and social losses, not all studies find a... more Although religiosity tends to help older people to cope with physical and social losses, not all studies find a significant association between religious involvement and well-being in old age. It might be that primarily the intrinsic rather than the extrinsic aspect of religiosity is responsible for the positive effect of religiosity on well-being. Using a sample of 103 community dwelling older adults (58+), multivariate regression analyses showed that purpose in life rather than extrinsic or intrinsic religious orientation was positively related to elders' subjective well-being and negatively associated with fear of death and death avoidance. Moreover, extrinsic religious orientation had a positive effect on fear of death and death avoidance. Intrinsic religious orientation was positively related to approach acceptance of death. Frequency of shared spiritual activities and religious affiliation were unrelated to subjective well-being but positively related to death avoidance and fear of death, respectively. Those findings might explain why some studies that examine the effects of religion on well-being in old age produce contradictory or inconclusive results.

Welcome, sister death: On the remarkable departures of illumined beings

by Ronald L. Boyer

A reprint of one of my first published essays in 1981. Originally published in Laughing Man Magazine (1981). Please ignore typos in recreated version by unknown typist.

This article, originally published years ago in the Laughing Man, a journal of contemporary spirituality, examines... more This article, originally published years ago in the Laughing Man, a journal of contemporary spirituality, examines accounts of the extraordinary manners of death attributed to mystics, saints and sages of numerous spiritual traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. 

“Funerales regios en la Castilla bajomedieval”, Acta historica et archaeologica medievalia, 22, 2001, pp. 537-564.

by Margarita Cabrera Sánchez

Los sistemas ideológicos de la muerte

by Guillermo González Campos

It’s common to think that the fear of the death reflects the inability of human beings to accept the end of life,... more It’s common to think that the fear of the death reflects the inability of human beings to accept the end of life, especially their own. In contrast to this view, Heidegger suggests that the rejection of death is not an inherent attitude of human beings, but the result of a collective position that ultimately holds the person in an inauthentic existence. Based on this theory, this article develops the idea that our knowledge of the death is ideological and related not only with a set of concepts about death, but also with prescribed conducts through two different systems (hope and palliation), which constrain the possibilities of existence of individuals.

Es común pensar que el miedo a la muerte refleja la incapacidad del ser humano de aceptar su finitud. En contraposición a esta opinión, Heidegger sugirió que el rechazo a la muerte no es una actitud inherente al ser humano, sino el resultado de asumir una posición colectiva que, a la larga, sume a la persona en una existencia inauténtica. A partir de esta propuesta, este artículo desarrolla la idea de que nuestro conocimiento sobre la muerte es de carácter ideológico y que, a través de dos sistemas diferentes (la esperanza y la paliación), se encuentra relacionado no solo con conjuntos de concepciones que versan sobre el morir, sino con conductas prescritas y decisiones normalizadas que constriñen las posibilidades de existencia de los individuos.

The Viseu and Lamego Clergy: clerical wills and social ties.

by Anísio Miguel de Sousa Saraiva

In ENCONTRO INTERNACIONAL "CARREIRAS ECLESIÁSTICAS NO OCIDENTE CRISTÃO, SÉC. XII-XIV", Lisboa, 2006 - Carreiras eclesiásticas no ocidente cristão : séc. XII-XIV. Lisboa : Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Centro de Estudos de História Religiosa, 2007. ISBN 978-972-8361-26-6. p. 139-149.

From the documentation collated under the auspices of the Fasti Ecclesiae Portugaliae project, we selected as the... more From the documentation collated under the auspices of the Fasti Ecclesiae Portugaliae project, we selected as the object of this paper the as yet unpublished series of wills of the Viseu and Lamego Sees, penned between the years 1147 and 1325.We focusfocused on the analysis of the final wills inscribed in the testaments of the bishops, dignitaries, canons and other clergy of these two cathedrals, with a particular interest in the bequests through which these clergymen reveal some type of connection to their family group or to other social groups or networks. By means of these data, we study whether the entrance of these clergymen into the Church of Viseu and Lamego implied a breaking off from kinship ties, replacing them with new bonds of confidence and dependence established within the clergy or whether, on the contrary, these men simultaneously continued with distinct levels and modes of relationship, whether within or beyond the Church. Should this latter position be confirmed, we seek to identify the various relational networks and evaluate the influence they exerted on the clergymen’s social life, through the importance that, as testators, they ascribed to these relationships at the moment of preparing for death and dividing up their worldly possessions.

“The very environment militates against denial”: Negotiating Place Through Material Culture

by Ian Brodie

Ethnologies, Volume 27, numéro 2, 2005, p. 189-217

In this article the author reflects on the objects brought into his father’s hospice room in the last eight weeks of... more In this article the author reflects on the objects brought into his father’s hospice room in the last eight weeks of his life. Objects and their placement were continually renegotiated as he moved through various stages of his disease — greater and lesser pain, appetite, freedom of movement, and lucidity, and shifting timeframes for his imminent passing. The author’s father had no direct control over the presence or absence of objects, and little control over their placement, so that the room became a site of polite contestation among the various parties helping him in his final days.