The Last Enemy: Death and the Christian Hope

This intensive course will examine the puzzling phenomenon of death from a variety of perspectives, including theological, biological, philosophical, and political. We will explore the thesis that while all people die there is no single thing called “death,” but that death’s meaning is always governed by some larger narrative of divine and/or human realities. Particular attention will be paid to Christianity’s situating of death in an apocalyptic context, the death and resurrection of Jesus as the undoing of death, and the particular ways in which death is denied or eclipsed in modern liberal capitalism. We will also draw on literary sources, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary novels, to lend depth and texture to our study of “the last enemy.”  Lectures, seminar discussion, small groups. Class participation, précis, final paper