This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2013.
This inter- and multi-disciplinary volume examines how culture impacts care for the dying, the overall experience of dying, and ways the dead are remembered. Over the past three decades, scholarship in thanatology has increased dramatically. This text localizes a broad array of perspectives that research, analyze, and interpret the many interrelations and interactions that exist between death and culture. Culture not only presents and portrays ideas about ‘a good death’ and norms that seek to achieve it, but culture also operates as both a vehicle and medium through which meaning about death is communicated and understood. Sadly, too, culture sometimes facilitates death through violence.
Lloyd Steffen, Ph.D., is Professor of Religion Studies, University Chaplain and Director of the Center for Dialogue, Ethics and Spirituality at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His books include
Life/Choice: The Theory of Just Abortion, Executing Justice: The Moral Meaning of the Death Penalty, and most recently
Holy War, Just War: Exploring the Moral Meaning of Religious Violence. Nate Hinerman, Ph.D., is a member of the faculty in the School of Nursing and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. He teaches and writes about death, dying, bereavement, and community-based models of hospice and palliative care.