Department of
Religion
TUCC 5:
Classroom 210
Instructor: Florian Pohl
Office telephone: (215) 204-7973
Email: [email protected]
Office location: Anderson Hall, 6th floor, Room Nr. 645
Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
This course is a cross-cultural look at death and dying in several different religious traditions. In the first half of the course we will specifically examine the religious traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Indigenous traditions in order to address questions surrounding death and immortality from the point of view of these traditions. Does personal identity persist after death? What beliefs about the nature of God, reality and persons are tied to ideas of death and post-death existence? What are some of the mourning practices followed by different religions? The second half of the course deals with dying in the context of contemporary culture. We will examine psychological and philosophical perspectives on the process of dying, on care for the dying, on bereavement and funerals. This class is Writing Intensive. That means that the process of writing will be a way to learn the basic content and concepts of the course. You will always have the opportunity to correct and re-submit your papers. I other cases you will be required to re-write and re-submit your papers. Late papers will be penalized. Except in cases of personal emergency, papers more than one week late will not be accepted at all.
Goals: (1) to develop the ability to think both empathetically and critically about conflicting (religious) claims; (2) to gain knowledge of the history and culture of several major religious traditions; (3) to understand how various religious traditions understand death and dying; and (4) to develop critical and moral/ethical competence surrounding the field of death and dying.
Required Texts:
How We Die, Sherwin Nuland
On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Good Night, My Son, Esther F. Smucker
A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis
The Sacred Art of Dying, Kenneth Kramer
reserve readings*
Recommended Texts:
The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, Starhawk
The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy
*A Note on Reserve Readings: Many
of the reserve readings can be found in the library on
There are several useful Web sites dealing with Death and Dying:
A web site that we will be using in this class is NPR's "The End of Life". Several of the readings in the syllabus will be found on this page. There are also transcripts of their on-going radio series "The End of Life," links to resources and an extensive bibliography.
Those of interested in the readings from Starhawk's The Pagan Book of Living and Dying might want to check out the Reclaiming Collective's Web Page for more information on Pagan and Wiccan practices. They also have a site devoted specifically to Death and Dying.
This course will use the
communication tools on Blackboard as well as readings and documents located
there. To use Blackboard you only need to have a
Grading
The Final Grade will be calculated as follows:
(1) Attendance and Class Participation
20%
(2) Journal Entries 20%
(3) Interview Project 30%
(4) Ethical Case Study, including presentation 30%
This is a reading and writing intensive class. The class is listed at the W300 level, and I will treat it accordingly. You do not need to major in religion to take this class. However, I do expect you to work hard, and to contribute to class discussions. While I will lecture for part of the class almost every day, it will be conducted much more on a seminar model of examining your reactions to the reading material.
Working groups: You will be assigned to a working group of 3-4 people for the duration of the semester. These groups will meet for some time each week during class. The primary function of these groups is to assist each other in the writing and revising process. You will share drafts of your papers with your group and will offer help, critique, suggestions, etc., to the other members. You may even decide to do one or more of the papers as a collaborative effort. Active participation in a working group will count toward your class participation grade (and how you work in these groups will impact your paper grades).
The readings are engaging, and heavy. If you have not done the readings, it will simply be impossible for you to participate in the discussion. While we will suffer from that, the main damage will be done to your own learning and your grade. This equally applies to the amount and quality of writing expected of you.
(1) Attendance and Participation
Attendance is required as it is a prerequisite for all of your work in this course. As we convene only once per week more than one absence will lower your final grade for this class. More than three absences will result in automatic failure. If you have a valid excuse for missing a class session, please bring the excuse to me for evaluation. Class participation is part of the learning process. As it is also part of the final grade there will be ample opportunity for it over the course of the semester. Apart from my lectures you will be involved in activities such as group work, class discussion, presentations, and in-class writing. About a fourth (25%) of class time each week will be spent in small group work. Other times we will spend on active discussion. This might start with someone saying: "Hey, I really liked/hated/cried about/laughed at what this author says about death/dying/living/caregiving, because it really reminded me of what my interview subject said/of my grandmother's death/of this week's episode of The Simpson’s." Or maybe you found a quote from the readings (or somewhere else) and you want to put it on the board as you walk in for us to talk about. Not everyone needs to talk every time, but there will be numerous ways for you to express your engagement with what we are doing in class.
(2) Weekly Journal Entries
We will begin each class with a few minutes of in-class journaling on a question or issue raised by the readings or class discussion. As the semester progresses, you can propose topics and questions for journaling. After we leave class, you should spend at least 1/2 hour per entry expanding, responding to, rewriting, or in some way continuing your journal entry for that week. Maybe something struck you in class discussion that made you change your mind about what you wrote. Maybe you want to further explain an idea. Maybe this journal entry could be turned into a poem or short story. Use your imagination. It doesn't have to be long or elaborate. If you only get 1/2 page of additional writing, fine. These are ongoing conversations with yourself; they do not need to be formal or polished.
Beginning about the fifth class or so, I will ask you to choose one of your expanded journal entries (or poetry or short story or rant, whatever) to be shared with your classmates by posting it to our course on Blackboard. You get to choose which one you post, but by the end of the semester, everyone will have posted once. If you want, you can get the members of your working group to help you decide on one and help proofread it, if necessary. But even here, they do not need to be formal pieces of writing.
If you want to use these journals to start off that class discussion, that's great but not required. The journal entries are designed to help you engage with the class material. Consequently, the level of engagement with topics from or related to our class will form the main grading criterion for the journals. Doing them is required. I will collect journal entries toward the end of the term (Journal Due Date: 7/29).
(3) Interview Project
The first step is to interview someone--or more than one person--who has had direct experience with death and/or dying. You may wish to interview two people about the same issue. Some possibilities include:
- someone who has had someone close to him/her die; his/her spiritual advisor (rabbi, priest, minister, etc.)
- a case worker at a hospice; a dying person at a hospice; someone who doesn't work with hospice but who treats terminally ill people
- a person in a nursing home; their care givers; their insurers
- clergy and funeral directors
- someone with AIDS; someone who works with AIDS patients
- a cop or a medic
Some things you MUST do: get permission from the person to use their interview for a paper and have them sign a consent form; find out if they want their own named used or not; if you want to tape the interview, get permission for that; be polite and sensitive, but don't be afraid to ask for what (you think) you want to know; be open to hearing things that might upset you or challenge you. The next step is to bring the data you have collected, in the form of a transcript of your interview, your notes of the interview, whatever, and to examine it in your small group. Since the interview itself does not a project make, you must now reflect on, think about, ask questions about what you have discovered in the interview(s). This is something to do collaboratively with your group. Help each other discern the approach you want to take with this material. Consider the following questions (these are only suggestions – What questions could you add? Which are irrelevant to you? Why?): What did you expect? What did you find? How did you influence what you discovered? What did you forget/not think to ask? Who is this person? Did anything they say corroborate or contradict the theories we've been reading/discussing in class? What did they know that the theorists didn't? Which parts of the interview were most compelling to you? Why? Which parts will you focus on/use in writing up this project?
Through discussion with your group, try to get a sense of what your main questions/issues are. Put your own experience into conversation with the interview material. What do you need to say about this material? Develop a thesis/theme/main idea that you th ink reflects this material and explain how and why. It can be as simple as "what I learned from this interview is..."; or you can be more complex and actually put this into conversation with the readings. (If you're feeling really daring, you may want to "borrow" material from a group member – with their permission, of course – and compare your experience/interview with theirs.)
Next, write up your findings. You may want to focus on those things which are most compelling. I'm only recommending 5 pages. A Note on Page Limits: Page limits are not hard and fast; think instead of a pot of chili--the bigger the pot the more stuff you can throw in, but you've also got to up the seasoning. A page limit gives you a guideline for how many peppers to cut up and how much chili powder you need to toss in. Obviously a 2 page paper will need less detail, thought, argument, etc., than a 5 page paper, and that needs less than a 10 pager. If you only put enough chili powder for a 2 page paper into a 5 pager, you have a weak mix.
For the second group session, bring in enough (typed, double-spaced) copies of your paper so that each person in your working group can have one. Discuss them in your group; offer suggestions for revision. I suspect the best way to do this would be to work in pairs, or some other way where each person is reading only one other paper. I'll give you a worksheet for peer review that will help you with revision suggestions. Let each other know what worked and what didn't. Do a final revision on the paper for the next week.
DUE DATES:
Transcript: 7/22
Initial Draft: 7/27
Final Draft: 7/29
(4) Ethical Case Study
First, decide with your working group if you want to do this collaboratively or individually (this is either/or – all members of the group must either do it as a group project or do it individually; not 3 group members working together and one working alone or whatever). Then decide on a case your group wants to study. I will present some possibilities, but if your group wants to design its own, that's fine, as long as you check with me before proceeding to the next step. If you work as a group, you must (obviously) do the same case; as individuals you can each choose different cases if you want.
For the write up of the case, we
will use the following procedure (we'll do an example together in class, so if
you don't understand something now, don't worry):
1. Identify at least five ethical issues this case presents. Any given
situation usually has several contestable issues, or it would be rather simple
to make a decision. What are the issues that complicate this case?
2. Identify a theorist who deals with at least one of these ethical issues. I use the term theorist very loosely here. Look back over what we've read in class and find an author who you think is addressing an issue in this case. Maybe the author is a poet or a fiction writer, but her work makes you think differently about this issue. If you know of another writer we haven't read for this class, you can use him or her; maybe one of the recommended books deals with this. Say something about what the author says and how it impacts this issue.
3. Define three central
concepts/technical terms/ethical issues/etc. What do you need to define to make
the case clearer? If you've got a case about hospice, what is hospice? If the case is about
deciding when someone is actually dead, what is death? Do a what/how/why definition (again, we'll go over this in
class).
4. Write up a recommendation on this case, drawing on the work you've
done above. If you were an ethics consultant for a hospital, or a clergy
member, or a social worker, etc., what would you advise the hospital, family,
patient, etc. If you don't have an y firm
recommendations, explain why.
5. Write a brief paragraph on how it feels to do this case. Was it easy
or difficult to make a recommendation in step 4? Why or why not? Is this a role
you would like to inhabit in "real life?" What personal resources did
you draw on to accomplish this ta sk?
After you decide which case you're going to examine, write up your
responses to questions 1-3. Bring this work back to your group for the next
class, and using the worksheet I will provide, give constructive feedback, help
with the What/How/Why definitions, grammar, etc. Then go home, make the
revisions you discussed and write up your answers to questions 4-5. Bring the
entire case to your group for the next session.
If you're working together, discuss the case and how each of you
contributes to the common endeavor. Drawing on each other's contributions, go
through the five steps and decide how you would answer them as a group. This
might mean that you need to expand the parameters a bit--give four or five
definitions rather than three; acknowledge disagreement about your
recommendations, etc. Assign someone to write up your findings and prepare the
final draft for the next week. Remember: In a group project, all group members
will get the same grade.
DUE DATES
Draft of Questions 1-3: 8/5
Draft of Questions 4-5: 8/10
Final Draft: 8/12
Possible Extra Credit Option
To earn extra credit, you can read one of the books recommended below or a book of your own choosing, or view a movie or video related to our class AND write a 1-2 page review to be posted here on our Web site. If you're interested, see me. Here are some ideas for things you could read or see:
- The Sweet Hereafter. This is a Canadian film about the aftermath of a schoolbus accident that kills several children from a small town. It examines the different ways families react to tragedy and grief.
- Death: The Trip of a Lifetime. This is the video companion to the book by Greg Palmer, some of which we've read for class. JoAnne, one of the librarians at Ambler, has been very generous and brought in her own videos of the PBS series. The videos are on 2-hour reserve, so if you wish to view them, you can do so in the library.
- Heaven's Coast by Mark Doty. This book is his reflections on the death from AIDS of his life partner.
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. This is the true story of a successful sportswriter who visits his favorite high school teacher during the last weeks of the older mans death.
- One True Thing by Anna Quindlan. A moving novel about a woman on trial for helping her mother to die. She describes the dying process and the factors that led to the character's decision.
1 Introduction
Richard Kalish, "Horse on the Dining Room
Table" (handout)
VIDEO: Star Trek: Voyager, "Mortal Coil"
Kramer, Introduction
2 Death and Religion: Hinduism (and Buddhism)
Kramer, pp. 27-80
choose one item from the Recommended list below to read or listen to
Recommended On-line Materials:
Buddhism: Rinpoche, "The
Essential Phowa Practice" (NPR-R);
"Reincarnation:
Tibetan Buddhism" (NPR-T)
4 Death and Religion: Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Kramer, pp. 122-168
choose one item from the Recommended list below
to read or listen to.
Recommended On-line Materials:
Judaism: Hammer, "Rites of Mourning, Part
1 and Part
2" (NPR-R);
"Mourner's
Kaddish" (NPR-R);
"Burial
Society" (NPR-T)
Klug, "Jewish
Funeral Customs"
Klug, "Jewish
Views on the Afterlife"
Christianity: Episcopal Church, "Ministration
at the Time of Death" (NPR-R) or
"The Burial of the
Dead: Rite Two" (R);
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Guidelines for Funerals;
Roman Catholic Church, selections from "Roman Funeral, Part
1 and Part
2"
Muslim:"Death and Burial of a Muslim, Part
1 and Part
2" (NPR-R)
I've added three items to the recommended readings for 7/15.
First, there is material from the
Recommended On-line Materials:
Neo-Pagan: Reclaiming Collective Web Page
8 Death: A Physical Experience
Nuland: Choose two segments of reading from
the following list:
Heart Disease: pp. 3-42
Old Age/Alzheimer's: pp. 43-117
AIDS: pp. 163-201
Cancer: pp. 202-241
9 Dying: A Psychological Experience
Kübler-Ross, chapters 2-6
10 Dying Well/Hospice
Palmer, "The Last Days of Ed Decker" (R);
"Preparing for Approaching Death, Part 1
and Part
2" (NPR-R);
Williams, "Snowy Egrets" (handout);
Lorde, excerpt from "The Cancer Journals"
(handout);
choose one additional item from the Recommended lists.
Recommended
Woodward and McCormick, "The Art of Dying Well" (R);
Recommended On-line Materials:
Bernadin "The
Gift of Life" (NPR-R);
"The Story of Helen Payne, Part 1 and Part 2"
(NPR-T);
Cassell, "A Simplified Description of the
Person, Part
1 and Part
2" (NPR-R);
Byock, excerpt from Dying
Well: The Prospect of Growth at the End of Life (NPR-R)
MacDonald, "The
Emerging Field of Palliative Medicine" (NPR-R);
"The Place
of Palliative Medicine" (NPR-T);
"About Advanced Directives, Part 1
and Part
2"
Rom, "On
Losing a Parent: Tips on Coping"
Also, under the recommended readings for 7/27, look for
Joanna Rom's article "On
Losing a Parent: Tips on Coping," also written from a Jewish
perspective.
11 Dying: Ethical Issues
Jonas, "The Right To Life" (R);
Meyer, "Truth and the Physician" (R);
Wolf, "Gender, Feminism, and Death: Physician-Assisted Suicide and
Euthanasia" (R)
Recommended Reading:
Nuland, pp. 118-162;
Colt, "The Slot Machine" (R)
12 Sample Ethical Case Study
Please catch up on last week's reading and choose one of the
articles from the Recommended lists below (or from last week) to read. We will
watch a video and then together do a sample ethical case study based on what we
view.
In-Class Video: "Please Let Me Die"
Recommended
Jakobovits, "Ethical Problems Regarding the
Termination of Life" (R);
Maguire, "Deciding for Yourself: The Objections" (R);
Belkin, "There's No Such Thing as a Simple
Suicide" (R)
Recommended On-line Materials:
"Critique of
the Double Effect" (NPR-T)
13 Death and Children
Smucker
Pinkson, "Do They Celebrate Christmas in
Heaven?" (CR);
14 Grieving
Lewis;
"Roundtable:
Grief and Bereavement" (NPR-T)
Recommended On-line Materials:
Jaffe and Ehrlich, excerpt from All
Kinds of Love: Experiencing Hospice (NPR-R);
Poindexter, "The Anatomy of a Friendship" (R)
15 Funerals
Palmer, "Sad Music and Slow Driving" (R);
Michael, "Bo's Cremation" (R);
choose one item from the Recommended lists below
In-Class Video: "60-Minutes" segment on
funeral homes
Recommended
Larson, "Fight to the Death" (R);
Nichols, "Funerals: A Time for Grief and Growth" (R)
Recommended On-line Materials:
Lynch, "The Undertaking" Part 1
and Part
2" (NPR-R);
"Do It
Yourself Funerals(NPR-T);
"Funeral
Homes"(NPR-T);
"Alternative
Funerals"(NPR-T)