Philosophical and Theological Image of Death Seen Through the Eyes of Young People

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Abstract

The article presents the cultural image of death from the theological and philosophical point of view. I used the ethnolinguistic method to investigate this phenomenon. The text particularly takes into account changes in attitudes and emotions towards death throughout the various periods of history, ranging from antiquity to modernity. Next, the method of presenting death in the Bible, as well as the teachings preached by the Church Fathers was presented to finally verify the current views with what young people attending primary school think about it — how they define death or are afraid of death. The students' task was to answer questions about death in a broad sense. The next questions concerned the physical symptoms of death, the accompanying emotions, and the causes of death. Respondents also had to answer the questions whether people are afraid of it and the question concerning the feelings it evokes.