Here’s something a little different: Joseph Bottum has written a very long and fascinating essay about politics, culture, and why our understanding of death is critical to both. A short excerpt to whet your appetite:
“Society rests on the death of men,” the Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once declared. He probably intended nothing more than a sour comment on the mass of humankind: that violent, childish, unpleasant crew, never to be fully trusted. But it seems, nonetheless, a curious formulation. In what sense could society rest on the death of men, rather than being damaged or threatened by human mortality?There are too many movable parts for all this to come clear in an instant. It’s like one of those giant jigsaw puzzles, thousands of pieces scattered across the table—except we’ve lost the box they came in and can’t quite remember the picture they’re supposed to make.
Bottum sees great spiritual and cultural significance in the way we approach the fact of death within our communities, and in the way we consider the continuing influence of the departed. As Christians, we have a unique idea about the place of death in the cosmos. A bit of a morbid topic, perhaps, and the essay is not a fast read, but it certainly got me thinking about an important subject that I naturally tend to avoid.
Loading ...
May 23, 2007 at 18:36
“A bit of a morbid topic, perhaps, and the essay is not a fast read, but it certainly got me thinking about an important subject that I naturally tend to avoid.”
For myself, .
May 23, 2007 at 22:30
I’m not entirely convinced that “As Christians, we have a unique idea about the place of death in the cosmos” – most (and perhaps all?) of the traditional Christian ideas about an afterlife are found elsewhere in other cultural/ religious backgrounds somewhere too.
A little OT, but what I’d really like to know, is if medical science ever beats death,
1. How will it impact on the ethics of society
2. Will christians take whatever treatment is needed to garuntee life in this world, if they really believe in a “restoration” in the next, or will they put their lives on the line and accept their mortal fate, in site of the opportunity to do otherwise?
May 24, 2007 at 01:11
Okay, so the rest of my comment didn’t come through. I screwed up the html. Oh well.
I merely said that I think death is a fascinating topic to think about because our view of it depends upon theology, philosophy, anthropology, and biology. I think (and write) about it a fair amount.
I’ll never try html tags again. And I call myself a blogger….
May 24, 2007 at 06:47
“Not a fast read,” indeed. If you ever link to an essay this long again, Andy, I think I will be making a trip down to Michigan to help you see the error of your ways
Bottum is making a point which Christians should be the first to agree with. It reminds me of a quote which I once heard. I can’t remember exactly what the wording was or who said it, but it went like this: in the 1800s, sex was the taboo of our culture, but people talked a lot about death; since the 1900s, it’s been the other way ‘round. Up till the 1800s, people thought a lot about death. They kept human skulls on their desks to remind them of their mortality. Some orders of nuns and monks slept in their coffins for the same reason. At the same time, they kept sex under wraps. Women didn’t even let their ankles or wrists show, because they didn’t want to be considered indecent. And so on.
These days, it’s the other way around. We wallow in sex. It’s everywhere, on the TV, the radio, the movies, bombarding us constantly. The hot issue these days is gay rights and gay marriage, which are important because they represent our obsession with sexual fulfillment. But as Bottum points out, death is something we want to keep out of sight and out of mind.
Don’t know about you, but I think the first mindset is a lot more spiritually healthy then the second. Probably psychologically healthy as well. We’re all going to die, and it’s important for us to come to terms with that. We need to live in the light of this truth, that one day we will die and be judged, and we should prepare for this. Thinking about death is therefore a kind of realism. Obsession with sex isn’t. Our whole culture is sending the message all the time that the way to be happy is through having the perfect sexual relationship; and not many are going to have this, which is going to result in widespread frustration. There are just too many people around who either have lost or never been able to find a marriage partner, and never will be able to find another one, whom our culture’s obsession with sex is going to make them feel left out and alone.
So I guess what I’m saying is that I agree with Bottum that it’s important to recognise the reality of death, because, on top of all of the reasons that he mentioned, it helps us to remember the fact that we have a soul which will one day stand before God and be judged, and that’s something we just can’t afford to forget.
May 31, 2007 at 14:02
Last month I interviewed an author of a book (Terry Grossman) for a film for a client. He is an MD and the book title is Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Basically he believes we curently have the technology to extend our lives to 120 and that anyone who lives through the next 20 years will be facing radical new life extension therapies using nano technology. And when we make it to that bridge we will live long enough to develop the technology to basically live forever. Can anyone say “Tree of life”? He has a medical clinic devoted to the practice of extending life. He believes we need a new paradigm for old age and death and that old age and death should be viewed as diseases. The line between crackpot and visionary is very thin but this guy has quite a bit of credibility and sticks to accepted medical practices. The book was co-authored with Futurist Ray Kurzweill. So we’ve eaten from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and now death is banished! These are real issues that we will be facing if Jesus doesn’t come soon. Hmmm.
June 1, 2007 at 07:00
Hello well i would like to say that it is very inportant. Because most people don’t like to talk about this issue because of the mix feelings behind it i for one don’t care to commiment on this subject but i will I guess it is the thought of never to sure really where you are going in the after light and to me it is painful to prepare such a event for your self before you leave this earth and people are amazed by death. Because the scienctist can’t preddict the unknow and we as the people fear the unknow. because really we don’t under stand the unknow we just know that we have to meet this appointment date that we can not turn down.