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Life Worth Living is an initiative of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School.
Elon Univ REL2750
Life, Death, and Afterlife
Natalie Reynoso is a Ph.D. candidate in History of Christianity at Fordham University.
Our goal will be to continue asking questions as we wrestle together with the uncertainties of human life, the reality of death, and the possibility of an afterlife.
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Course Description
The themes of our course—life, death, and afterlife—provoke a number of centuries-old questions:
• Life: (1) Who do we answer to? (2) What does it mean for a life to go well? (3) What should we do when we fail? (4) What is the role of suffering in a good life?
• Death: (1) How do we talk about dying, death, and the dead? (2) What is death? (3) What characterizes a meaningful and dignified death as well as the opposite? (4) Is there such a thing as “good grief”? (5) How can thinking about death inform the way we live?
• Afterlife: (1) Is there life after death? (2) If one is to believe in an eternal afterlife, how might one characterize it? (3) Does an expectation of eternal life drain this life of all its meaning? (4) Is there a possibility for humans to achieve immortality, and if so, in what ways?
Many individuals throughout space and time have sought answers to these questions, some through a religious lens. This course will examine a diverse range of religious texts, traditions, and thinkers from the ancient world up to and including our own that discuss life, death, and the afterlife. As we learn from their ideas, we will reflect on how we might answer these questions (as listed above as well as others that emerge from these) for ourselves. The goal is not to arrive at any certainties on these topics, for such is impossible. Instead, our goal will be to continue asking questions as we wrestle together with the uncertainties of human life, the reality of death, and the possibility of an afterlife.
Sample of Course Readings
Santiago Slabodsky, “It’s the Theology Stupid! Coloniality, Anti-Blackness, and the Bounds of Humanity.”
Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
James L. Bernat, “Defining Death,” in The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying.
Rachel Aviv, “What Does It Mean to Die?” in The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/what-does-it-mean-to-die.
Fereydun Vahman (trans.), “Ardā Wirāz Nāmag - The Iranian ‘Divina Commedia’.”
A. Helwa, “Tawba: Repent and Return to Unity” in Secrets of Divine Love.
Lejla Demiri, “‘He who has created death and life’ (Q 67:2): Death in Islamic Theology and Spirituality,” in Theological Anthropology in Interreligious Perspective.
The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicita
Course Description
The themes of our course—life, death, and afterlife—provoke a number of centuries-old questions:
• Life: (1) Who do we answer to? (2) What does it mean for a life to go well? (3) What should we do when we fail? (4) What is the role of suffering in a good life?
• Death: (1) How do we talk about dying, death, and the dead? (2) What is death? (3) What characterizes a meaningful and dignified death as well as the opposite? (4) Is there such a thing as “good grief”? (5) How can thinking about death inform the way we live?
• Afterlife: (1) Is there life after death? (2) If one is to believe in an eternal afterlife, how might one characterize it? (3) Does an expectation of eternal life drain this life of all its meaning? (4) Is there a possibility for humans to achieve immortality, and if so, in what ways?
Many individuals throughout space and time have sought answers to these questions, some through a religious lens. This course will examine a diverse range of religious texts, traditions, and thinkers from the ancient world up to and including our own that discuss life, death, and the afterlife. As we learn from their ideas, we will reflect on how we might answer these questions (as listed above as well as others that emerge from these) for ourselves. The goal is not to arrive at any certainties on these topics, for such is impossible. Instead, our goal will be to continue asking questions as we wrestle together with the uncertainties of human life, the reality of death, and the possibility of an afterlife.
Sample of Course Readings
Santiago Slabodsky, “It’s the Theology Stupid! Coloniality, Anti-Blackness, and the Bounds of Humanity.”
Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
James L. Bernat, “Defining Death,” in The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying.
Rachel Aviv, “What Does It Mean to Die?” in The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/what-does-it-mean-to-die.
Fereydun Vahman (trans.), “Ardā Wirāz Nāmag - The Iranian ‘Divina Commedia’.”
A. Helwa, “Tawba: Repent and Return to Unity” in Secrets of Divine Love.
Lejla Demiri, “‘He who has created death and life’ (Q 67:2): Death in Islamic Theology and Spirituality,” in Theological Anthropology in Interreligious Perspective.
The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicita
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