RT Article
T1 Nonreligious Afterlife: Emerging Understandings of Death and Dying
JF Religions
VO 15
IS 1
A1 Miller, Chris
A1 Beaman, Lori G. 1963-
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2024
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1878038346
AB Death Cafés are informal events that bring people together for conversations about death and related issues. These events connect strangers from across a range of backgrounds, including healthcare workers, hospice volunteers, and funeral directors, among others. Based on an analysis of focus groups and interviews with Death Café attendees, this paper explores how participants construct and express conceptions of the process of dying and what happens after we die. Ideas about the afterlife have historically been shaped by a religious outlooks and identities. However, nonreligious lifestances have shifted how people understand death and dying. We suggest that notions of continuity of life are not the purview of religious people. Rather, participants in Death Cafés draw simultaneously on many ideas, and reveal ways of conceptualizing life after death—in various forms—without the guidance of religion. Based on conversations with attendees about their outlooks on death (and what may happen after death), our data reveals four main typologies of afterlife imaginaries, which we label cessation, unknown, energy, and transition. Among the diverse perspectives shared, we argue for the emergence of an immanent afterlife outlook.
K1 nonreligious afterlife
K1 Afterlife
K1 Death Café
K1 death and dying
K1 Nonreligion
DO 10.3390/rel15010104