Heidegger on Death: A Critical Theological Essay

This book examines the question of death in the light of Heidegger's paradigmatic discussion in Being and Time. Although Heidegger's own treatment deliberately refrains from engaging theological perspectives, George Pattison suggests that these not only serve to bring out problematic elements in his own approach but also point to the larger human or anthropological issues in play. Pattison reveals where and how Heidegger and theology part ways but also how Heidegger can helpfully challenge theology to rethink one of its own fundamental questions: human beings' relation to their death and the meaning of death in their religious lives.

About the Author

George Pattison is Professor in Theology at the University of Glasgow, and formerly Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. He has published widely in the areas of modern theology and philosophy of religion, including Anxious Angels: A Retrospective View of Religious Existentialism (1999), The Routledge Philosophy Guidbook to the Later Heidegger (2000), Kierkegaard and the Quest for Unambiguous Life (2012), and is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Theology and Modern European Thought (2013).