death

French rabbi Delphine Horvilleur reflects on 11 funerals to paint a vibrant picture of Jewish life.

In catacombs, crypts, and ossuaries, I’ve seen the ugliness of death transformed into something beautiful.

Christians have an opportunity to eschew euphemisms and talk honestly about mortality.

During my first several hours administering ashes as a hospital chaplain, I kept cringing.

Allison Meier sees cemeteries as great repositories of cultural history—and as spaces deserving of reverence.

I’m in a stage of life where I find myself praying the same prayer again and again.

In either case, Elizabeth McCracken’s account of losing a mother is wrenching and tender. 

Cody Sanders and Mikeal Parsons yearn for a better theology around death, dying, and the body. 

Maybe immortality is about more than not being dead.

Marilyn wasn’t sure she could stomach the sight of a truck carting 56 years of her husband’s work to the dump.

As my father was dying, I saw God’s radiant face more clearly.

In between, I was ordained a priest.

“Yearning for life is a part of what it means to be human.”

Sometimes truth is better than comfort.

A growing number of Christians are embracing natural burial practices.

The word contagion comes from the Latin words for “with” and “touch.”

My feet hurt. To distract myself, I'm recalling my professional failures.

Theologian Todd Billings grapples with scripture, philosophy, and his own incurable cancer.

She died in her nurse’s arms.

Death rituals used to happen in our houses. What if we brought them back?