Customer Reviews

How Different Religions View Death and Afterlife

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I originally had to buy this book for a death & dying course. Now, after the class ended, I refer to it constantly. It presents the information on death & afterlife beliefs of about 20 different religions in a very easy-to-understand, easy-to-grasp manner. Each religions death beliefs is prefaced by a concise background or history, putting the information on death beliefs into context. You don't have to struggle through pages of difficult-to-understand concepts to comprehend why each faith has its beliefs. Anyone interested in the subject should not skip this book. It is a superior resource!

This is a very straightforward, measured approach to the subject of the death and afterlife beliefs of about 20 different major world religions. To understand these views, one must have at least a basic understanding of the religion and thus, each chapter includes background information about the history of the faith and its main beliefs. The way it is organized and presented -- each chapter basically follows the same approach -- makes it easy to get a good comparative understanding of this very complex subject. I especially like the Questions & Answers chapter that asks a guestion (such as "who will be saved?) and then the each author answers the question from the point of view of his or her faith (each chapter is written by a different author, usually a member of the faith about which he or she is writing). I really was able to get a very good understanding of death and afterlife and how different faiths view it. Highly recommend!!

I'm giving this book 4 stars instead of 3 because I could have, or should have, checked the table of contents somewhere before ordering. You see it is not that this is a bad book; the essays presented are well-rounded and informative. But after reading the title and product description ("comparative overview of the teachings and the death beliefs of 19 different religions"), I was expecting a broader treatment of religions of the world.

As it turns out, however, that 11 out of the 19 'different' religions represented in this book are Christian - and 8 of those are protestant. This book, then, in my view is just not useful for a comparative study in religion on the subject of the afterlife. For instance, there are chapters devoted to Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Seventh-Day Adventist, and Methodist denominations.

Different religions? You can't be serious. These are all too similar in their afterlife views and worldview in general to merit their own individual chapters. Meanwhile Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, each receive only one chapter's worth of attention. And this book is simply silent on the religions of China, Japan, Africa, Native America, etc. It doesn't even have a chapter devoted to the Eastern Orthodox Church, and one would think, with its emphasis on Christianity, that it would.

In conclusion, get this book only if you are primarily interested in Christian views of the afterlife, and protestant ones at that. Otherwise, there are much better books out there.

Drs. Johnson & McGee have provided the perfect avenue for exploring and understanding different views of death and the afterlife. This is a very complete and easy to read resource which I highly recommend.

This book is the best of the best in presenting a fair, unbias representation of what different world religions and christian faiths believe about death and the afterlife.

I teach a class on death and dying; this book was fantastic at helping the students understand different perspectives. Death and birth are the two end caps of our time on earth both are spiritual in nature. It is important as a clinician/chaplain/human being to be respectful of our fellow being's religious and spiritual beliefs, escpecially if we wish to "companion" others during their experiences with death and grieving.