Claudia Venhorst

Thomas Quartier

Eric Venbrux

Brenda Mathijssen

This study was developed by researchers at the Center of Thanatology at Radboud University, Nijmegen. The Center conducts research into socio-cultural and religious aspects of death, dying, and bereavement. In the book, scholars in the broad interdisciplinary field of thanatology offer valuable insights in the changing views of death as found in Europe. The first part of the book presents studies on a conceptual level for various aspects of death studies. In a second segment, different European societies are compared on a national level, while, in the final part, religious beliefs, attitudes, practices, and other worldview-related issues are covered. Countries, disciplines, and worldviews come face to face, providing a framework and starting a profound comparative dialogue on challenges that have confronted this field of study. (Series: Death Studies. Nijmegen Studies in Thanatology - Vol. 1)

Changing European Death Ways

Funeral rites help people to cope with their loss and express their religious needs. Even in a secularised society such as that in the Netherlands large groups of people still fall back on ecclesiastic rites when a loved one dies. But how does one explain that there are more people participating in church funerals than people who assign religion a focal place in their lives? How do present-day funeral-goers regard the rites in which they participate? Does the rite actually help them to bridge the gaps left by the deceased? This study considers such questions from the angle of ritual and liturgical studies by way of empirical research into perceptions of present-day church funerals in the Netherlands.

Thomas Quartier

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