Confronting Mortality: Faith and Meaning across Cultures

Despite advances in technology and medicine, death itself remains an immutable certainty. Indeed, the acceptance and understanding of our mortality is one of the enduring metaphysical challenges that have confronted human beings from the beginning of time.

How have we sought to cope with the inevitability of our mortality? How do various cultural and social representations of mortality shape and influence the way in which we understand and approach death? To what extent do personal beliefs and convictions about the meaning of life or the notion of an “afterlife” impact how we perceive and experience the process of death and dying? Psychologist Lani Leary, professor of philosophy and religion Jeff Kripal, and sociologist Allan Kellehear come together to share a multicultural perspective on death, dying, and what lies beyond.