Relations between This World and the Hereafter – On the Social Character of Death in Religious-Cultural Traditions and Modernity

Abstract

In religious traditions, death is a transitional phenomenon: it is not life and death that oppose each other, but birth and death. Life continues after death. The various conceptions of the afterlife make clear that although people share the fate of mortality, death by no means makes all people equal. The way people live on depends on different factors. Social relationships are also not necessarily terminated by death. This world and the hereafter are not separated by rigid boundaries but are connected by ritual and spiritual networks of relationships. The multifaceted care for the dead is an essential part of religious traditions and can still be found – at least in relics – in modern times.