Lydia S. Dugdale
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029124
- eISBN:
- 9780262328579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029124.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
At various points throughout history, for reasons of plague, pestilence, and war, death has dominated human consciousness. This was especially apparent during the Bubonic Plague of the fourteenth ...
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At various points throughout history, for reasons of plague, pestilence, and war, death has dominated human consciousness. This was especially apparent during the Bubonic Plague of the fourteenth century, which claimed the lives of up to two-thirds of Europeans. The Catholic Church responded by issuing texts, collectively known as the Ars moriendi, to guide the laity in its preparation for death. These books circulated widely throughout Europe, and were adopted and modified by both the religious and the non-religious, always with a view to preparing to die well. But as late nineteenth century Western society grew increasingly concerned with the art of living well, practices concerned with dying were largely forgotten or neglected, and death became medicalized. The field of bioethics has, since its earliest days, debated end-of-life issues, but it has not definitively aided the broader public in preparing for death. This book looks to bioethics to frame a modern Ars moriendi – one that can aid an aging, plural population to prepare for death and to support its members through the dying process.Less
At various points throughout history, for reasons of plague, pestilence, and war, death has dominated human consciousness. This was especially apparent during the Bubonic Plague of the fourteenth century, which claimed the lives of up to two-thirds of Europeans. The Catholic Church responded by issuing texts, collectively known as the Ars moriendi, to guide the laity in its preparation for death. These books circulated widely throughout Europe, and were adopted and modified by both the religious and the non-religious, always with a view to preparing to die well. But as late nineteenth century Western society grew increasingly concerned with the art of living well, practices concerned with dying were largely forgotten or neglected, and death became medicalized. The field of bioethics has, since its earliest days, debated end-of-life issues, but it has not definitively aided the broader public in preparing for death. This book looks to bioethics to frame a modern Ars moriendi – one that can aid an aging, plural population to prepare for death and to support its members through the dying process.
Lydia M.D. Dugdale (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029124
- eISBN:
- 9780262328579
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029124.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
Most of us are generally ill-equipped for dying. Today, we neither see death nor prepare for it. But this has not always been the case. In the early fifteenth century, the Catholic Church published ...
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Most of us are generally ill-equipped for dying. Today, we neither see death nor prepare for it. But this has not always been the case. In the early fifteenth century, the Catholic Church published the Ars moriendi texts, which established prayers and practices for an art of dying. In the twenty-first century, physicians rely on procedures and protocols for the efficient management of hospitalized patients. How might we recapture an art of dying that facilitates our dying well? In this book, physicians, philosophers, and theologians attempt to articulate a bioethical framework for dying well in a secularized, diverse society. Contributors discuss such topics as the acceptance of human finitude; the role of hospice and palliative medicine; spiritual preparation for death; and the relationship between community and individual autonomy. They also consider special cases, including children, elderly patients with dementia, and those suffering from AIDS in the early years of the epidemic, when doctors could do little more than accompany their patients in humble solidarity. These chapters make the case that only a robust bioethics—one that could foster both the contemplation of finitude and the cultivation of community–could bring about a modern art of dying well.Less
Most of us are generally ill-equipped for dying. Today, we neither see death nor prepare for it. But this has not always been the case. In the early fifteenth century, the Catholic Church published the Ars moriendi texts, which established prayers and practices for an art of dying. In the twenty-first century, physicians rely on procedures and protocols for the efficient management of hospitalized patients. How might we recapture an art of dying that facilitates our dying well? In this book, physicians, philosophers, and theologians attempt to articulate a bioethical framework for dying well in a secularized, diverse society. Contributors discuss such topics as the acceptance of human finitude; the role of hospice and palliative medicine; spiritual preparation for death; and the relationship between community and individual autonomy. They also consider special cases, including children, elderly patients with dementia, and those suffering from AIDS in the early years of the epidemic, when doctors could do little more than accompany their patients in humble solidarity. These chapters make the case that only a robust bioethics—one that could foster both the contemplation of finitude and the cultivation of community–could bring about a modern art of dying well.
Martin Christ
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198868156
- eISBN:
- 9780191904684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198868156.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
The fifth chapter concentrates on later Catholic responses to the increasingly Lutheran environment. The deans of biconfessional Bautzen were particularly important in this process. One, Johann ...
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The fifth chapter concentrates on later Catholic responses to the increasingly Lutheran environment. The deans of biconfessional Bautzen were particularly important in this process. One, Johann Leisentrit (1527–1586), reveals why Catholics incorporated Lutheran elements into their religiosity. He compromised on communion and baptisms to keep the peace in Bautzen, but he struggled to work with these compromises which he felt were necessary to ensure the survival of Catholicism. Leisentrit never went against the orders of any Catholic superiors, but he included songs by Luther in his hymnbook and did not feature purgatory in his instructions for the dying. These changes suggest that there was competition for souls and Leisentrit hoped to trump the Lutherans by incorporating some of their elements into his works. Later, attacks by other Catholics led Leisentrit to define Lutheranism, alongside other dissenting beliefs, as a heresy. External pressure could lead to a clearer definition of confessional boundaries.Less
The fifth chapter concentrates on later Catholic responses to the increasingly Lutheran environment. The deans of biconfessional Bautzen were particularly important in this process. One, Johann Leisentrit (1527–1586), reveals why Catholics incorporated Lutheran elements into their religiosity. He compromised on communion and baptisms to keep the peace in Bautzen, but he struggled to work with these compromises which he felt were necessary to ensure the survival of Catholicism. Leisentrit never went against the orders of any Catholic superiors, but he included songs by Luther in his hymnbook and did not feature purgatory in his instructions for the dying. These changes suggest that there was competition for souls and Leisentrit hoped to trump the Lutherans by incorporating some of their elements into his works. Later, attacks by other Catholics led Leisentrit to define Lutheranism, alongside other dissenting beliefs, as a heresy. External pressure could lead to a clearer definition of confessional boundaries.
Tom Mole
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474439411
- eISBN:
- 9781474453806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474439411.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The essay argues that throughout his writing life Byron was fascinated by the margin of life: the moment of death. For Byron and his heroes, looking squarely at other people’s deaths is understood to ...
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The essay argues that throughout his writing life Byron was fascinated by the margin of life: the moment of death. For Byron and his heroes, looking squarely at other people’s deaths is understood to signify and promote a kind of moral fortitude. Byron’s verse, however, often elides the moment of death, offering no description of it, but offering instead an aposiopesis – a rhetorical break that allows the moment of death to disappear into the texture of the verse. The essay investigates how Byron operates at the margins of life and also at the margins of language, suggesting that those margins become central to his poetry.Less
The essay argues that throughout his writing life Byron was fascinated by the margin of life: the moment of death. For Byron and his heroes, looking squarely at other people’s deaths is understood to signify and promote a kind of moral fortitude. Byron’s verse, however, often elides the moment of death, offering no description of it, but offering instead an aposiopesis – a rhetorical break that allows the moment of death to disappear into the texture of the verse. The essay investigates how Byron operates at the margins of life and also at the margins of language, suggesting that those margins become central to his poetry.
