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Investigating Death in America a Spring 2008 Faith & Life Lecture Series by Justin Holcomb
Listen to
Investigating Death in America
(March 17 and 24)
Lecture 1, March 17, 2008
Part 1 (10.9 mb)
Part 2 (7.4 mb)
Lecture 2, March 24, 2008
Part 1 (16.3 mb)
Part 2 (8.2 mb)
Lecture 4, April 7, 2008
(Lecture 3 was not recorded)
(17.1 mb)
Death is a universal fact of human life. Yet throughout history different cultures have responded to death and the dead body in a variety of ways. In this lecture series we will explore human responses to mortality, examining the symbols, rituals, and meaning-systems people have used to make sense of the end of life. Death is one of the few constants in human experience. Because of its reality in our own lives and the world around us, it would seem to be an important subject to discuss. Death is a universal dimension of the human experience. It is universal because it is programmed into the life of the individual physical body and because it is essential to the formation and unity of the social body. How the body is ushered out of the community of the living, and what symbols and rituals are employed during this period of transition, often speak to the strongest and deepest values of a culture.
 JUSTIN HOLCOMB, Director of Graduate Ministries, received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Emory University and has an M.A. in Theological Studies and an M.A. in Christian Thought from Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, Fla.). His edited volume, Christian Theologies of Scripture: A Comparative Introduction (New York University Press, 2006), explores various views of the authority and nature of scripture throughout the Christian tradition. Justin also teaches part-time at the University of Virginia and Reformed Theological Seminary. For the past four summers, he has traveled to southern Sudan to teach chaplains in the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army. Justin lives in Charlottesville with his wife, Lindsey.
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