Death (CT3011W)

Content

We humans simply have to talk about death. But what exactly is death? How shall we talk about it in ways that are honest, meaningful, and responsible? In this unit, students will undertake a theological investigation into the subject of death utilising the resources of Christian belief and significant thinkers in the Western tradition: from the ancient Greek poets and playwrights through to the cultural critics and philosophers of modernity.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

36 points in CT

Pedagogy

Lectures, seminars, classroom discussion

Indicative Bibliography

• Allison Jr., Dale C. Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2016.
• Anderson, Ray S. Theology, Death and Dying. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
• Billings, J. Todd. The End of the Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2020.
• Bradley, Ben, Fred Feldman, and Jens Johansson, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell, 1962.
• Jüngel, Eberhard. Death: The Riddle and the Mystery. Translated by Iain Nicol and Ute Nicol. Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1975.
• Kalantzis, George, and Matthew Levering, eds. Christian Dying: Witnesses from the Tradition. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2018.
• May, Todd. Death. Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.
• Novello, Henry L. Death as Transformation: A Contemporary Theology of Death. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.
• Rose, Gillian. Love's Work. London: Chatto & Windus, 1995.
• Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. On the Shortness of Life. Translated by Charles D. N. Costa. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
• Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

Assessment