LEAD Seminar: Death Anxiety by Catherine Philpot
Suicide is still a leading cause of death in Australia. Euthanasia was legalized in Victoria in the June this year. Abortion laws have been introduced in Queensland and are before the parliament in New South Wales. These trends might lead one to assume that modern Australians are comfortable with death. Yet, psychologists can document a number of unhelpful behaviors provoked by mortality salience or death anxiety. In this time of discussion and reflection these competing trends will be examined and compared to see the potential role for the church in ministering to the "after-life" needs of the post-modern world. It will be argued that now is not the time for the church to de-emphasis its story of salvation for the next world as well as this one.
