MORS BRITANNICA by Professor Douglas J. Davies ( 9780199644971 )

Item Details

Title:

MORS BRITANNICA
LIFESTYLE & DEATH-STYLE IN BRITAIN TODAY

By:

Professor Douglas J. Davies

Format:

Hardback

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£55.00

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£53.35

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£1.65

ISBN 10:

0199644977

ISBN 13:

9780199644971

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

12 November, 2015

Pages:

448

Description:

This book is a study of British attitudes towards and practices surrounding death. Davies provides a window into British life and insights into the foundational links between individuals and society, across the spectrum of traditionally religious views through to humanist and secular alternatives.

Synopsis:

A people's lifestyle is one thing, their death-style another. The proximity or distance between such styles says much about a society, not least in Britain today. Mors Britannica takes up this style-issue in a society where cultural changes involve distinctions between traditional religion, secularisation, and emergent forms of spirituality, all of which involve emotions, where fear, longing, and a sense of loss rise in waves when death marks the root embodiment of our humanity. These world-orientations, evident in older and newer ritual practices, engage death in the hope and desire that love, relationships, community, and human identity be not rendered meaningless. Yet both emotions and ritual have an uneasiness to them because 'death' is a slippery topic as the twenty-first century gets under way in Britain. In this work, Douglas J.Davies draws from a largely anthropological-sociological perspective, with consideration of history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and theology, to provide a window into British life and insights into the foundation links between individuals and society, across the spectrum of traditionally religious views through to humanist and secular alternatives. He considers memorial sites (from churchyards to roadside memorials); forms of corporeal disposal (from cremation to composting); and death rites in a range of religious and secular traditions.

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Imprint:

Oxford University Press

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Returnable

Some other items by this author:

AN INTRODUCTION TO MORMONISM

BISHOPS, WIVES AND CHILDREN