Forced Cremation of Covid Dead in Sri Lanka Further Marginalizes Muslim Community
Baby Shaayiq Faz was just 20 days old when he died. He was the youngest…
Read Moredeath and dying
“Man of Steel” Brings Muscular Message to Oppose Right-to-Die Legislation
Hanson is a tempting spokesperson for the anti-aid-in-dying movement because he represents its “traditional” family values, a nostalgic view of male independence and dominance within an idealized conception of nuclear families.
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The Case for Treating Near-Death Experiences Like Acid Trips
Heavenly jaunts aren’t the only kind of near-death experience.
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Delillo and Doctor Strange: Orientalist Fantasy is Alive and Well
“Open your mind. Change your reality.” These are the twin phrases that flash across the…
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Can Poetry Heal the Planet?
There’s a 40-year interval between Stephen Levine’s previous book of poetry and his latest—that’s quite a span. Though his books of prose have found over a million readers, this newest book flies under the radar. Why? One is the still-marginal place of poetry in American culture. For book publishers, the “poetry marketplace” (a kind of oxymoron, since poetry operates largely outside the cash nexus), is largely fueled by writing programs in academia. True, Coleman Barks’ renditions of medieval Sufi poet Rumi captivated a national audience, for a spell. But America’s own living, devotional, mystic poets find a much smaller audience, and slip through the cracks of critical discourse.
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Growing Up Cult: A Memoir of Life with Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy wanted to win a Nobel prize, and to be more famous than the Dalai Lama or the Pope. Jayanti Tamm writes a book about what happens when a good guru goes bad.
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Desecration of Graves at Burr Oak Cemetery in Illinois: Why’s it So Disturbing?
The scale and longevity of mistreating the remains at Burr Oak Cemetery is astonishing indeed, but it does have a familiar ring to it in the longer view of US history, if not human history generally, of attitudes toward and abuses of the dead.
Read MoreThe Great Cremation Debate
Cremation is increasingly acceptable to Jews but is it as ecologically friendly as we’re led to believe?
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Mexico’s War on Saint Death
The Mexican government has demolished dozens of shrines to Santa Muerta, claiming that the worship of this skeletal woman in a white cloak is a “narco-cult.” As resistance grows, so does this new religious movement.
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Listening and Supporting: The Spirituality of Nurses
A Massachusetts nurse loses her job after talking to a dying patient about religion. What does this case reveal about the place of sprituality in American hospitals?
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