Spring 2026 

REL 1120 - Confronting Death

Tu/Thu 11:00 - 12:15 

Meets Gen Ed requirements: LSE and HUM

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What is this course about?

In this class, you will learn how different cultures and religious traditions throughout the world and throughout time have dealt with the certainty of the death of the self and the death of others. 

You will learn how to analyze these traditions using objective and critical conceptual tools so that you can begin the life-long process of examining your own views of death and grief, what implied sources of authority these views and beliefs depend on, and why you accept them (or not).

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Structure of the course

The course consists of three comparative case studies, as listed below.

1) Hinduism and Buddhism (India and China)

• What is karma? How does it work? What is rebirth? Are there heavens and hells in Buddhism? How did Buddhism arise from the ancient Indian religious landscape to offer a new vision of salvation? Why was cremation an important part of the Hindu and Buddhist funeral practice? How did Buddhism work to bind the community of the living and the dead together with the mediation of the monastic institution? What are the origins of the Chinese Buddhist "Ghost Festival"?

2) Ancient Israelite religion and Christianity, up to Dante

• What are the historical origins of the Christian visions of the afterlife, especially hell, heaven, and purgatory? Did the ancient Israelites believe in hell and heaven? How did Dante's Divine Comedy solidfy this medieval vision of the afterlife?

• A bonus section focuses on the origins and prevalence of Santa Muerte devotion within Mexican Catholicism. How do we go beyond sensationalist depictions in mainstream media news and popular culture? How can we understand the present need to depict, interact, and make death into a maternal figure?

3) Modern American Secular Culture

• How is death represented in popular culture today, and what the effects? What is the impact of modern medicine on our perceptions of mortality? How and when did the funeral industry come to have such a big impact on popular perceptions of death? What are "home funerals" and "human composting sites" and how are they providing alternative means of mortuary practices? 

• A bonus section focuses on  an overview of Near Death Experiences and contemporary debates about what they are and how to understand them.

Sample Syllabus Here 

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Central questions addressed in this course 

• How does religion seek to make death real, urgent, and transformative?

• What are the real functions of visions of the afterlife?

• How does religion seek to make the dead real, to sustain the obligations of the living to the dead, and to tie both into an enduring community of the dead, the living, and the yet to be born?

• Does mainstream American culture and shared cultural values help to make death real, or less real?

• What are the debates surrounding Near Death Experiences (NDEs)? What are their common characteristics? Which characteristics might come from cultural conditioning, which are universal? How is scientific research shedding light on the origins or causes of NDEs? Are they merely brain-based hallucinations?

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Course requirements

• 3 in-class exams (75%)

• 2 reflection assignments (20%)

• attendance (5%)

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Select comments from student course evaluations*

*These comments come from anonymous student course evaluations. For more, click here: Testimonials 

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Website Credits

Nathan Goenaga, Appalachian State University (BA, Religious Studies, 2026), course Instructional Assistant, Spring 2026

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