arguing that it is better to acknowledge that western society paradoxically
denies death and affirms it simultaneously (Walter 1991). Given the long-
standing theses regarding the multiple ways in which death is denied within
cultural modernity, Walter ’s observation regarding the “revival of death” in
the public sphere is all the more remarkable (Walter 1994). In what follows
I argue that Walter ’s analysis, affirming the “authority of the self” in post-
modernism, requires a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of
religious language to fully avoid the danger of authoritarian expressive
individualism that he is concerned about. While he does note some of the
problems that religious or spiritual language creates for health care workers
I think it necessary to further clarify the relation between religious language
and the supposed authority of the self.
Thanatology and Postmodernism
Part of my interest in Walter ’s thesis here has to do with the collapse of the
distinction between public discourse and private faith (or belief) that is upheld
in modernism and blurred in neo-modernism, and the re-emergence of “spir-
ituality” or religion as a legitimate area of concern (and sometimes partici-
pation) for the secular professional. I am not seeking to criticize the division
of labor within caregiving facilities – facilities that have professional religious
authorities on staff to deal with the spiritual or religious concerns of their
patients. My concern, rather, is with the intermingling of secular care with
“spiritual care” which produces, in my view, a concept of the self that is indi-
vidualistic and authoritarian rather than intersubjective and relational.
It is clear that the traditional approach to death and dying is inadequate,
since we do not live in an age where people “bend at the knee” to religious
authorities. Following Walter it is also evident that there are serious deficien-
cies in the modern view of death and dying. The impersonal nature of its
approach, its intensely private norms and the exclusion of interactive forms
of care has increased the traumatic impact that death has on the survivors.
Although there may be a widespread nostalgia for the sacred canopy that
traditional religious authorities provide, the required social institutions and
cultural norms supporting this worldview have been weakened and in some
instances are non-existent. That being said, it is with great irony that the post-
modern approach to death involves the rejuvenation of religion, even if reli-
gious practices are conceived more in terms of their progressive function as
188 • Kenneth G. MacKendrick