As I was writing this post, I received word that a friend of mine had just died of a heart attack. The post seemed to make all the more sense! Here is what I had written.
A best seller made the way around Europe – called the “Ars Moriendi”. The date was around 1415 and was in part inspired by the Black death (the Bubonic Plague) of 60 years earlier.
The Art of Dying (Ars Moriendi) was read by a population that had experienced a pandemic of huge proportions. The text was put together by the Catholic Church to help Christians address their own deaths.
In this last month we have become a society that needs to consider our own deaths outside of scientifically (psychologically, socially, medically, mathematically) proposed approaches. In 2015 a book examining the idea of the Ars Moriendi was published. The authours wrote an academic tome examining where we are at in the 21st Century – how we have moved from art to technology/scientism in our approach to death. [Lydia S. Dugdale, editor. Dying in the twenty-first century: toward a new ethical framework for the art of dying well. MIT Press, 2015].
While I have not read the enitre text, here is a part of Dugdale’s text that describes the original “Ars Moriendi” from the 1400’s.
“These books emphasize that a Christian can prepare for a good death by leading a repentant and righteous life. They argue that the dying faithful should not fear death, since God is in control of every moment including death itself. The texts warn against temptations to unbelief, despair, impatience, pride and avarice and lead the dying through a series of questions for reaffirming belief and receiving consolation.
The Ars Moiendi texts also prescribe specific practices and prayers that might be performed by attendants on behalf of the dying – activities that would , in turn, encourage them to prepare for their own deaths”
I wonder if it is time to write another book on the “ART” of dying versus the many texts we have on the “TECHNOLOGY” of dying?