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The Final Enemy

Human mortality has always fascinated the greatest ­creative minds—from Homer declaiming on the slayings of Patroclus and Hector, to Sigmund Freud speculating on death drives. Roger Scruton even locates the significance of artistic endeavor in the fact that we understand our existence to be . . . . Continue Reading »

Mortal Frames

A Time to Keep:  Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life by ephraim radner baylor, 304 pages, $49.95 A Time to Keep is an odyssey—a journey through childhood and adolescence, work and sexuality, aging and dying. The reader encounters Sigmund Freud on dying and death, . . . . Continue Reading »

An Imposition of Ashes

Just lately from the forest and after a short time on the savannah, humanity acquired a sense of self. We awakened one morning, so it seems, and if we did not know who we were we at least knew we were not like the animals. We knew we died and the animals did not. We possessed an interior . . . . Continue Reading »

In Praise of Wakes

Going to a wake is always unpleasant. For one thing the departed, once embalmed, always looks like a stranger. Thus, the corkboard display of photos of the deceased as a baby, and as a teen, can only emphasize that he is now utterly a fossil. To make things worse, a wake usually comes in one of two . . . . Continue Reading »

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