‘Looking Death Straight in the Eye’: The Wisdom and Witness of the Saints

Paul Murray, OP

Angelicum

Paul Murray, O.P., an Irish Dominican, teaches the literature of the mystical tradition at the Angelicum. Books include: T.S. Eliot and Mysticism: The Secret History of Four Quartets (1981); God’s Spies: Michelangelo, Shakespeare and Other Poets of Vision (2019); Saint Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire, Preacher of Freedom (2020).

“‘Looking Death Straight in the Eye’: The Wisdom and Witness of the Saints”

What constitutes an authentic Christian understanding of death? The aim of the paper is to explore how, over the centuries, death has been viewed and approached by the Christian saints. Three sections comprise the work: (1) Facing Death: The Distinctive Christian Vision; (2) Scandal or Blessing? Christian Grief in the Face of Death; (3) Imagining the Unimaginable: Visions of the Afterlife.