Introduction

Death, bereavement, and mourning have multiple meanings. The human encounter with death is often precisely the occasion when the bereaved need to be sustained in their loss, cured of the anxiety that the meeting with death engenders, and comforted in their grief. It is the brush with death that moves those who are bereaved but have survived to take on new and often solemn obligations. Sometimes these obligations transform the bereaved and mourning in ways that lead to growth and maturity; other times they lead to unremitting anger or melancholia. There are a variety of religious or spiritual expressions—some steeped in tradition, others unique and new—that the bereaved and mourning experience in their time of loss, but there appear to be some common elements in all of them. As such bereavement and mourning are also subject to the same ambiguities and those who experience them are in a variety places.