The last passage
Subtitle: recovering a death of our own
By: Donald Heinz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780195116434
Subjects: Gesellschaft; Psychologische aspecten; Death; Funeral rites and ceremonies; Brauchtum; Sociale aspecten; Dood; Psychologie; Tod; Dodenbezorging
Description: Is death merely the cessation of life? Are our final years simply a wearing out of the body? Are hospitals and funeral homes - the bureaucratic machinery of death - capable of handling the profound spiritual dimension of dying? In The Last Passage, Donald Heinz offers answers to these questions in a book that urges us to "recover a death of our own" and to view our final years as a fulfillment, a "last career." Seeking appropriate models for such a reconstruction, Heinz offers a fascinating overview of the many ways death has been envisioned and ritualized throughout human history, from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to 15th/century Christian ars moriendi - manuals on the art of dying - and from Jean Paul Sartre to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Finally, Heinz shows us how we might create rituals through the use of music, visual arts, dance, drama, and language that would enable us to approach death with reverence, as the spiritual consummation of our lives.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-289) and index.