Berkley Center

Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny is a record of the 2012 Building Bridges seminar for leading Christian and Muslim scholars, convened by Rowan Williams, then archbishop of Canterbury. The essays in this volume explore what the Bible and Qur'an—and the Christian and Islamic theological traditions—have to say about death, resurrection, and human destiny. Other essays explore the notion of the good death, as well as explain the funeral practices of each tradition. Relevant texts are included with commentary, as are personal reflections on death by several of the seminar participants. There is also an account of the seminar's informal conversations. Three short pieces by Rowan Williams provide his opening comments at the seminar and his reflections on its proceedings. The volume also contains an analysis of the Building Bridges seminar after a decade of his leadership. 

download | PDF of the book (provided by Georgetown University Press)

Table of Contents

• Introduction | David Marshall
• Preface | Rowan Williams

Part I: Surveys

• Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny in the Bible | N. T. Wright
• Response to N. T. Wright | Reza Shah-Kazemi
• Response to Reza Shah-Kazemi | N. T. Wright

• Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny: Qur'anic and Islamic Perspectives | Mona Siddiqui
• Response to Mona Siddiqui | Jane Dammen McAuliffe

• Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny in the Islamic Tradition | Asma Afsaruddin
• Response to Asma Afsaruddin | Gavin D’Costa

• Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny in the Christian Tradition | Geoffrey Rowell
• Response to Geoffrey Rowell | Feras Hamza

• Dying Well: Christian Faith and Practice | Harriet Harris
• Response to Harriet Harris | Recep Senturk

• A Muslim’s Perspective on the Good Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny | Sajjad Rizvi
• Death and the Love of Life: A Response to Sajjad Rizvi | Miroslav Volf

• Reflections | Rowan Williams

Part II: Texts and Commentaries

• I Corinthians 15
• St. Paul on the Resurrection: I Corinthians 15 | Richard A. Burridge

• Selected Qur’anic Texts
• Commentary on Selected Qur’anic Texts | Muhammad Abdel Haleem

• Selected Passages from al-Ghazalı’s The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife
• Al-Ghazalı on Death | Tim Winter

• Selected Passages from Dante’s The Divine Comedy
• The Afterlife as Presented by Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy | Dennis McAuliffe

• Selected Passages from Journey to the Afterlife
• Muslim Funerals | Musharraf Hussain

• Contemporary Funeral Liturgy in the Church of England
• Christian Funerals | Michael Ipgrave

• Conversations in Canterbury | David Marshall
• Afterword | Rowan Williams
• Personal Reflections on Death
• A Decade of Appreciative Conversation: The Building Bridges Seminar under Rowan Williams | Lucinda Mosher