Douglas Davies is Professor in the Study of Religion and Director of Durham University's Centre for Death and Life Studies, UK. His numerous books on death and other aspects of Religious Studies reflect his combined skills as both Anthropologist of Religion and Theologian.Hannah Rumble is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Exeter, UK. She is also an Associate at the Centre for Death and Life Studies, University of Durham, UK, and Research Associate at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK.

'Davies and Rumble analyse natural burial and give it a spiritual re-brand through which they highlight the potentially meaningless death exemplified by conventional burial and cremation. Life-style and death-style are unified as environmental science is utilised to redefine the hitherto rotting corpse into an animate gift to nature, to fecundity, and to future generations.They challenge the very meaning of dead, challenge the church to create a new ecological litany, and challenge each of us to create our own life-death narrative. We must die to create a viable planet, but only if we utilise natural burial.'

• Preface 1. Funeral Forms, Life-styles and Death-styles 2. Varied Sites and Changing Rites 3. Options and Motivations: What People Say 4. Self-Gift, Soil, and Society 5. Spirituality, Theology, Self and Sense of Place NotesBibliography Index

Douglas Davies is Professor in the Study of Religion and Director of Durham University's Centre for Death and Life Studies, UK. His numerous books on death and other aspects of Religious Studies reflect his combined skills as both Anthropologist of Religion and Theologian.Hannah Rumble is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Exeter, UK. She is also an Associate at the Centre for Death and Life Studies, University of Durham, UK, and Research Associate at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK.

'Davies and Rumble analyse natural burial and give it a spiritual re-brand through which they highlight the potentially meaningless death exemplified by conventional burial and cremation. Life-style and death-style are unified as environmental science is utilised to redefine the hitherto rotting corpse into an animate gift to nature, to fecundity, and to future generations.They challenge the very meaning of dead, challenge the church to create a new ecological litany, and challenge each of us to create our own life-death narrative. We must die to create a viable planet, but only if we utilise natural burial.'

• Preface 1. Funeral Forms, Life-styles and Death-styles 2. Varied Sites and Changing Rites 3. Options and Motivations: What People Say 4. Self-Gift, Soil, and Society 5. Spirituality, Theology, Self and Sense of Place NotesBibliography Index

Douglas Davies is Professor in the Study of Religion and Director of Durham University's Centre for Death and Life Studies, UK. His numerous books on death and other aspects of Religious Studies reflect his combined skills as both Anthropologist of Religion and Theologian.Hannah Rumble is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Exeter, UK. She is also an Associate at the Centre for Death and Life Studies, University of Durham, UK, and Research Associate at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK.

'Davies and Rumble analyse natural burial and give it a spiritual re-brand through which they highlight the potentially meaningless death exemplified by conventional burial and cremation. Life-style and death-style are unified as environmental science is utilised to redefine the hitherto rotting corpse into an animate gift to nature, to fecundity, and to future generations.They challenge the very meaning of dead, challenge the church to create a new ecological litany, and challenge each of us to create our own life-death narrative. We must die to create a viable planet, but only if we utilise natural burial.'

• Preface 1. Funeral Forms, Life-styles and Death-styles 2. Varied Sites and Changing Rites 3. Options and Motivations: What People Say 4. Self-Gift, Soil, and Society 5. Spirituality, Theology, Self and Sense of Place NotesBibliography Index