About the Author

Donald Heinz is Dean, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, California State University, Chico. He lives in Chico, California.

Reviews

"Our unimaginative, spiritually impoverished death system, Heinz argues, begets a shallow, dispirited existence. Through revitalization of ritual within the context of community and religion, we can bring hope and renewed meaning to our deaths.... This scholarly analysis includes a rich bibliography and is recommended for all libraries."--Library Journal
"Donald Heinz is a mature and insightful observer of our society's anxieties about the last passage. But he is also something more--a person whose own experiences of loss and hope have coalesced into a vision of revewal for the communal spirit that can see us safely through both life and death."--Robert Kastenbaum, Arizona State University
"Donald Heinz in The Last Passage has performed an immensely useful task: he has sorted through the vast and heterogeneous literature on death and dying that has grown up in recent years and shown us what is valuable in it as well as what is lacking when held up to a serious look at the phenomenon it purports to clarify. In his beautifully written and carefully argued book Heinz describes the insights about death of several of the great traditions and
shows the way in which a renewed understanding of ritual can help us deal more adequately with this ultimate challenge."--Robert N. Bellah, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkley and
coauthor of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society
"There is no doubt that death is now out of the closet, and being discussed in hospitals, courtrooms, and lawyers' offices. But that is not enough. Donald Heinz would have us think much more richly and deeply about death, attempting to find ways to bring to death a greater sense of the sacred and of ritual. His is a rich and vital contribution on a central and neglected topic."--Daniel Callahan, Director, The Hastings Center
"A remarkable achievement. A passionate and prophetic book that deserves to be widely read."--Rick Moody