W7: Organ Donation and Burial
Course Objective(s):
• CO4 Describe how medical institutions impact death.
• CO5 Investigate the variables of living, specifically with death, vacuity and loneliness among others.
Learning Outcomes:
• Students will be able to comprehend the meaning of organ recipient and organ donation
• Student will demonstrate the ability to interpret burial practices
Description:
Click on “Post new thread” and write your answer to this week’s Discussion question in a minimum of 2-3 substantial paragraphs along with two replies of at least a substantial paragraph.
Before you post, please thoroughly edit your writing to ensure it is professional and academic. For more details about the initial post and peer replies are graded, see the RELS LD Discussion Rubric. Be sure to respond to a minimum of two classmates with at least a substantial paragraph as well.
Please pick one of the following questions to answer for the forum this week:
1. Pick one story from the Recipient page and one story from the Donation page stories on organdonar.gov. How did each story impact your thoughts on organ donation?
2. What are the four types of organ donation? Explain each one in detail in your own words.
3. Pick two burial practices from around the world to discuss with support. How does religion partake in your choices?
4. Your own thoughtful response based on one of our topics this week. Support your answer from the reading.
Soteriology
Salvation, in its basic terminology, means “a source or means of being saved from harm, ruin, or loss” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary). To someone of the Christian faith, salvation means “deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary). Soteriology is the doctrine of salvation.
The four classic paths to salvation, as presented by Livingston, are not necessarily commonplace. Livingston combines the religious paths as common denominators of several religious traditions. In other words, Livingston has found the common threads across religious traditions. However, it is necessary not to put these religious traditions so close together as comparable, because as we know by now, religious traditions are different. All roads do not lead to the same salvation in all religions. What Livingston describes are the paths to salvation by way of faith, devotion, disciplined action, and meditation as attributes giving adulation to each different salvation of the religious traditions.
Salvation and its Path
Salvation and its path is dependent on several factors according to each preference of a religion. Each action in the religious traditions depends on the foundation of the archetype of each individual faith. For example, faith is belief, yet we need to remember what is the faith leading to in each religious tradition. Each religious tradition has a different idea for its own utopia. Devotion is a result of an exchange of personal actions for spiritual happiness, yet we have to remember each religious tradition has its own perception of a deity, god, gods, or the like. Livingston describes, “action is the most universal and popular of paths to salvation” (350). In actions, we have to reflect on what actions are included in a path to salvation – such actions as being kind to others, for example. There is mediation, which Livingston describes as mystical or a practice of the religious elite. The act of mediation is defined differently in several traditions. Meditation, in most instances, is a personal path but can be related to a group setting.
According to the Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, the word salvation has two different meanings. The word salvation in the New Testament is deliverance from present or personal. For example, salvation can mean spiritual deliverance granted by God to those who accept salvation by faith and repentance. It can also mean deliverance from what some refer to as this evil age, which refers to the world as in bondage to evil/Satan.
Classic Paths to Salvation
Achieving salvation has varied greatly in the history of religion. Still, four paths are common in most religions—those four classic paths to salvation: faith, devotion, disciplined action, meditation, and insight.
Use the arrows in the gray bars on the left and right sides of the screen to learn more about the 4 classic paths to salvation.
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The Way of Faith
The way of faith is the backbone to all of these paths to salvation because it consists of “a total trust (Fiducia), a confident reliance on divine grace, on unmerited love and dependence” (Livingston). Faith is a way of knowing even when you cannot tangibly see it or touch it. “It logically follows that the deeper the sense of sin, the greater is the need for help beyond the self” (Livingston). In Christianity, in most cases, Jesus Christ is savior, responsible for delivering humanity from committing acts that are considered transgressions against God’s will. Thus, sufficing the path to salvation through the way of faith. Another aspect of faith is the way of grace through faith, where “the believer is liberated or saved by divine grace through faith alone.” Martin Luther made many attempts at righteousness and finding a gracious God only to fail and become discontent with Christianity. Through a simple change of a word in a Roman gospel reading, “do penance, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” To being rewritten by Erasmus in a new Greek text, changing the word “penance” to “repent.” “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
This allowed Luther to look at God, not as a demanding judge but a loving Father who will forgive the unrighteous. Faith cannot be forced upon an individual. Faith is a genuine feeling, a connection, with a higher being/God. With faith, there are no barriers, no hoops to jump through. There is faith – higher being – salvation. For many, the way of faith is believing in an unseen sacred power or being. Martin Luther struggled with attaining the righteousness of God (Livingston). It was not until he studied apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, “the righteous shall live from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17) that it appeared to come together for him. The way of faith can mean to devote oneself wholly to God, or a higher power. Essentially, humans are defenseless, and their personal will is bonded to evil; therefore, the only way to salvation or grace is through this faith. In this way, faith becomes synonymous with belief and consists of “the total response of a person—heart, mind, and will” (Livingston). “The believer is liberated or saved by divine grace through faith alone” (Livingston). In other words, in this framework of faith, there is not anything a human can do to be saved except living in faith. Hebrews 11:6 it states, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
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The Eightfold Path of Buddhism
The Eightfold Path of Buddhism is an example for meditation and insight.
1. Right understanding
2. Right thought
3. Right speech
4. Right conduct
5. Right means of making a living
6. Right mental attitude or effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration
Meditation and insight is a path to salvation by finding a silent place and building a connection with a higher being. The way of meditation and insight in Joshua 1:8 it states, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” In religions that practice meditation, such as in Hindu Sanskrit or Buddhist Pali, it means “a regimen of mental cultivation and development that proceeds” “through a series of moral and physical disciplines to the higher levels of mindfulness, or true consciousness, wisdom, or insight-enlightenment” (Livingston). “Those who follow this way believe that true insight is absolutely crucial for the achievement of genuine spiritual freedom and release” (Livingston).
Classic Paths to Salvation: Conclusion
The four paths of salvation give followers the ability and the strength to complete their life course. Some religions favor one path over another; however, they often consist of a combination of a few, or all, of these paths to salvation.
A Note About Organ Donation
Organ donation can be done while alive or deceased. You might have heard the phrase, “life, pass it on” in regard to organ donation. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services one person donating his or her organs “can save or improve as many as 75 lives.” That is a high number to pass on life. Organ donation, after investigation, is a decision that an individual needs to make for themselves. If a person wants to donate his or her organs many states have it now on the back of a driver’s license.
As you will read this week there are four types of organ donation:
• Living
• Deceased
• Vascularized Composite Allografts
• Pediatric
Most are familiar with the traditional burial process. This generally partakes from a funeral home with embalming of the body, placement of the body in a casket and/or burial vault at a cemetery. Through the years the burial process has come forth with what is called Green Burials. Shari Wolf of Natural Grace Funerals explains the process.
View the Burials and Funerals Transcript
Burial practices from around the world are quite diverse as you will see from the short video.
View the Burial Practices Transcript
Works Cited
Livingston, James C. (2009). Anatomy of the Sacred: An Introduction to Religion. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Organ procurement and transplantation network. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/.Accessed March 14, 2019.
Salvation. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Retrieved February 21, 2016 from http://www.mw.com/dictionary/
Vine, WE, Unger, Merrill, and White, W. (1978). Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Image Citations
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