Death, Ritual, and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites

Death, Ritual, and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites
ISBN-10
0826454836
ISBN-13
9780826454836
Category
Religion
Pages
272
Language
English
Published
2002-04-30
Publisher
A&C Black
Author
Douglas Davies

Description

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.

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