「救済の問題」としての死

概要

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Why do we ask about the meaning of Death? It is because Death is nothing but the fundamental meaning of life. But we can't experience our own death. How can we ask about it? Death turns up for us in various guises, when we think of it beforehand. Generally speaking, Death makes its appearance as an anxiety or a fear for our lives. We all feel uneasy facing our own death and contemplate ways of relieving ourselves from it. Let us try to trace the thoughts of human beings who have coped with the fear of Death. I think there have been three basic answers to the problem. The first is the method dismissing Death from our minds. The second is the method of reducing the Death question to the knowledge question. This method, still more, can be divided in two contrastive ways : the contemplative and the practical. The third is the method of regarding Death as the starting point to "a better land." This is a religious method. All religions in the world perhaps have ways of saving people from the fear of Death. I will discuss here three typical examples of "the beyond" : "Anoyo" (the other world) in Shintoism, "Gokuraku Jodo" (a paradise) in the Jodo sect of Buddism and "Heaven" in Christianity.
東海大学の論文
1993-03-30