Martyrdom, Self-sacrifice, and Self-Immolation Religious Perspectives on Suicide

includes index and biblioraphy

On Death, Religion, and Rubrics for Suicide ...........1 To die For: The Evolution of Early Jewish Martyrdom ..........18 Performing christian martyrdom ...........18 Collective martyrdom and religious suicide:The Branch davidians and heaven`s Gate ..........54 Martyrdom and its contestations in the Formative Period of Islam ...........85 The Death of Musa al -Kazim : Knowledge and Suicide in Early Twelver ...........106 Apologia for Suicide : Martyrdom in Contemporary Jihadist Discourse .....126 Hindu Ascetic Death .......140 Sati .......162 Dying Heroically : Jainism and the Ritual Fast to Death ........182 The Tropics of Heroic Death : Martyrdom and the Sikh tradition ..........205 The Meetings of Sascrifice : The LTTE, Suicide, and the limits of the religion Question ........226 To Extract the Essence from this Essenceless body : Self-Sacrifice and self-Immolation in Indian Buddhism ...........241 Reflections on self-immolation in chinese buddhist and daoist traditions ...........264 Relinquishing the Body to reach the pure Land : Buddhist Ascetics Suicide in Premodern Japan .......280