Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Knowledge
with Jean-Philippe de Tonnac
Bayard Centurion, Oct 2004
Presentation
Sixty authors explore and examine knowledge and beliefs about death and immortality across all traditions and in the modern world. This original and accessible encyclopedia is structured in two main parts:
– Part 1: The Journey of the Soul, or how the great civilizations and religions of humanity have depicted death and the journey to the afterlife. With contributions from leading specialists (Jean Delumeau for Christianity, Michel Hulin for India, Jacques Brosse for Buddhism, Régis Boyer for Nordic civilizations…)
– Part 2: The Revolution of Western Modernity, or how we have sacralized the body, reinvented an imaginary of immortality, and concealed death… With contributions from numerous philosophers and psychoanalysts who explore our relationship to dying and the hope of another life. Featuring leading figures who synthesize our contemporary knowledge of life and death (Axel Kahn, Jean-Claude Ameisen…), semiologists who describe the new imaginaries of death and immortality on our screens (cinema, video games…), sociologists who recount the evolution of funeral practices, the erasure of death in a sanitized modern society that pays profane homage to the immortal body… doctors and moralists who revisit the evolution of end-of-life care and euthanasia.
What the press says:
“An impressive mapping of representations and conceptions of death across civilizations, carried out by a team of historians, philosophers, biologists, psychoanalysts and sociologists…” Libération
"A colossal book, commensurate with the taboo it tackles… A monument of knowledge on a subject that has been the object of long repression since the end of the 18th century… This is the book to take to a desert island…" Le Figaro
"A vast panorama that begins with prehistory and the earliest death rituals, and concludes with the most contemporary issues: the absence of ritual, accompanying the dying, euthanasia, the manipulation of beliefs, scientific research on cloning, cryogenics, and cell regeneration…" Le Monde
"Make no mistake, this is indeed an 'Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Beliefs': nearly 1,700 pages of intellectual brilliance, penned by such luminaries as Umberto Eco, Edgar Morin, Jean Delumeau, and Axel Kahn. Death and immortality are explored from every angle and across all continents. Under every sky and god." — La Croix
“Death is a question that haunts us. For this encyclopedia dedicated to the subject, some sixty authors have compiled a summation of knowledge and beliefs from different civilizations. Historians, philosophers, doctors, sociologists, and ethnologists share their perspectives on what we generally don't see. A journey from which one does not return entirely unscathed.” —Paris Match
"An astonishing work entitled *Death and Immortality*, an encyclopedia of knowledge and beliefs… an undeniable open-mindedness and commendable eclecticism guided the selection of themes presented…" Page
"What has become of death, mourning, and eternity today? An immersion into a fascinating tome… that explores everything we have thought about the passage from this world to the afterlife, from the dawn of humanity to the PlayStation era…" Tribune de Genève