funeral home to be seen by family members only whennembalmed and cosmetically prepared for viewing.nThe modern professionalization of death has not onlyndistanced the family from the dead, but has also reduced thenvisibility of religion. In many cities, nine out of ten funeralsnare now conducted out of funeral homes, not chapels ornsynagogues. Buoyed up by technocratic confidence, modernnmen and women look to the future with scant regard fornthe lessons of history. Wyndham Lewis anticipated thisndevelopment in his denunciation of “youngergenerationconsciousness”nin 1932. Lewis found it dangerous thatn” ‘Youth’ Propaganda” was teaching the young “to repudiatenall ancient forms of cult or ritual in favor of progress andnModernity.” In the same vein, George Orwell complainednabout 20th-century writers who were trying to create “a racenof enlightened sunbathers, whose sole topic of conversationnis their own superiority to their ancestors.”nThe affluence of the modern world also fosters the mythnof immortality. Harry Armstrong remarks that “thengeneral economic and social condition of a people has anconsiderable influence on their attitude toward death. Thengeneral rule is that the more affluent they become and thenmore creature comforts and satisfactions they enjoy, thenmore they fear and dread their ultimate fate.” Greaternaffluence affects not only attitudes toward death but alsonemotional responses. Allan Kellehear of the University ofnNew South Wales reports that “the higher the [social] class,nthe less emotion expressed for the deceased.” In contrast,nAries finds among “the lower classes . . . death is stillnsomething real and serious. … In them, we recognizenvestiges of the traditional death.”nBut why worry that only the poor must now acknowledgentheir mortality? Why not blithely enjoy our technicalnprogress and affluence until the lights go out? The truth,nalways understood by poets and moralists, is that only byncontemplating death can men recognize the boundaries andnsignificance of life. Pondering death often has the paradoxicalneffect of turning men away from egotism. So literarynIncritic Joseph Schwartz, paraphrasing the novelist WalkernPercy, concludes: “The certainty of death is the veryncondition of recovering oneself”nUnsurprisingly, surveys find that death is least frighteningnto those with a sense of “extended self” that includes othernpeople. Meditation on death can extend the self by remindingnthe living of debts to departed ancestors and of thenobligation to make like sacrifices for the next generation.nRichard Weaver accordingly stressed the importance ofn”belief in the continuum of (the human) race.” “Thosenwho have no concern for their ancestors,” he reasoned,n”will, by simple application of the same rule, have none forntheir descendants.”nArguably, the nation’s “birth dearth” springs in part fromnthe widespread denial of death. Immortals, after all, neednnot rear a successor generation. It is noteworthy that as thenfertility of American Gatholics — once known for their largenfamilies — has fallen to below replacement level, requestsnfor memorial masses for the dead have also declinednmarkedly. Death education of the modern sort not onlyndoes not reverse this breaking of the links between generationsnbut actually accelerates it. For Professor Leviton, it isnencouraging that after a death-ed class, students show “annincrease in preference for an educator rather than parent tonteach children about death.”nPerhaps this generation can be shaken out of the illusionnof immortality only by crisis, calamity, or war. But perhapsnsome can still be reached by the sober witness of faith. Suchnwitness will not come from death education. Rather the tasknfalls to those of us who profess faith in God, regardless of ourncareer choice. In this task, we can hardly hope to inspirenothers to make a pilgrimage toward eternal life withoutnpointing out that we are currently living in the shadow ofndeath. Few can acknowledge that shadow without pain andndistress. But in the end, it is far worse to deny that shadow bynretreating into the neon illumination of modern culture.nFor, as T.S. Eliot understood: “Life you may evade, butnDeath you shall not.”n<^nThe Fourth Annual Erasmus LecturenBIBLICAL INTERPRETATION IN CRISISnOn the Question of the Foundations and Approaches of Exegesis Todaynby Joseph Cardinal RatzingernPrefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.nPresident of the International Theological Commission and Pontifical Biblical Commission.nTo order your copy of BIBLICAL IPITERPRETATION IFi CRISIS send $2.50 (includes postage andnhandling) with the coupon below to: The Rockford Institute / 934 Morth Main Street / Rockford,nIllinois 61103.nD Please send my copy of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s “BIBLICAL iriTERPRETATIOM IN CRISIS.’nD Enclosed is my check or money order for $2.50nnamenAddressnCity .State. Zip. InI Mail to: The Rockord Institute / 934 M. Main St. / Rockford, IL 61103 TE89O In26/CHRONICLESnnn