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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide

Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide

Kitts, Margo

Paperback

Comparative ReligionReligion General General Sociology

ISBN10: 0190656492
ISBN13: 9780190656492
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Jun 1 2018
Pages: 358
Weight: 0.25
Height: 0.76 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.25
Language: English
Suicide in the forms of martyrdom, self-sacrifice, or self-immolation is perennially controversial: Should it rightly be termed suicide? Does religion sanction it? Should it be celebrated or anathematized? At least some idealization of such self-chosen deaths is found in every religious tradition treated in this volume, from ascetic heroes who conquer their passions to save others by dying, to righteous warriors who suffer and die valiantly while challenging the status quo. At the same time, there are persistent disputes about the concepts used to justify these deaths, such as altruism, heroism, and religion itself. In this volume, renowned scholars bring their literary and historical expertise to bear on the contested issue of religiously sanctioned suicide. Three examine contemporary movements with disputed classical roots, while eleven look at classical religious literatures which variously laud and disparage figures who invite self-harm to the point of death. Overall, the volume offers an important scholarly corrective to the axiom that religious traditions simply and always embrace life at any cost.

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Comparative Religion

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