Life-and-Death Education at the Intersection of Public Theological and Secular Sciences

Dear Colleagues,

Although Life education emerged in the North American context in the early 1970s as a formal discipline, especially considering the integration of Death education, it was only introduced and gained formal recognition in Taiwan in the late 1990s, with structured curricula and governmental endorsement by 2001. Recognizing the inextricable intertwining of life and death, the Taiwanese model explicitly merges Life education with Death education into a cohesive discipline known as Life and Death Education (Phan et al. 2020).

Life-and-Death Education, as we prefer to name it, is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to exploring the intimate and intersecting nexus between life and death, along with the meanings ascribed to them. It incorporates philosophical, religious, spiritual, psychological, sociocultural, economic, ecological, and biological perspectives to enhance individual well-being and social understanding of mortality and quality of life. Notably, this sector of education addresses existential questions, spiritual cultivation, coping with grief, and the promotion of life wisdom, often integrating metaphysical or transpersonal elements, especially in non-Western contexts, for example, Buddhism in Taiwan (Phan et al. 2023). For this reason, Life-and-Death Education can be considered the essence of the entire educational process (Gu 2013).

Public theology, also emerging in the early 1970s in the North American Context (Marty 1974), operates as a form of "contextually engaged theology" that reflects and shapes meanings, purposes, and practices in society beyond the boundaries of religious traditions. As Public Scriptural Theology, Public Historical Theology, Public Systematic Theology, and particularly Public Practical Theology, it addresses global challenges in pluralistic, secular contexts, emphasizing dialogical engagement among diverse traditions and between religious and secular discourses. Contemporary models of public theology stress the need to work constructively amid religious pluralism and secularization, promoting solidarity and cooperation across differences. In this way, theology maintains relevance, ethical bearing, and public engagement in societies increasingly shaped by secular sciences (Anthony 2025). As such, the dynamics of public theology are pertinent not only to the Christian tradition, but also to other religious traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc.), based on their focus on the goals of human development, societal harmony, and common good, acknowledging the need for interreligious dialogue and pluralistic understanding.

Life-and-Death Education from Public Theological Perspective

Life-and-Death Education can and arguably should be a focus of public theology within the context of secular sciences. Such a postulation allows theology to engage constructively with contemporary scientific understandings of life, death, and human well-being, fostering relevant ethical reflection, public discourse, and pedagogical practice in pluralistic and secular societies. In other words, Life-and-Death Education is not only suitable but strategically important as a focus for public theology in secular scientific contexts. It provides a rich, interdisciplinary forum where theology can dialogue with, complement, and ethically inform secular understandings of life, death, and well-being. Such a focus fosters practical, inclusive, and ethically robust public theology that is meaningful in pluralistic, secular societies.

In effect, the interdisciplinary nature of Life-and-Death Education provides an ideal focal point for public theology to engage secular sciences on human finitude, well-being, ethics, and societal values. It emphasizes proactive cultivation of life quality, meaning-making, and the ethical dimensions of mortality, which resonate with both scientific inquiry and theological reflection. The inclusion of secular scientific insights (from biology, thanatology, psychology, sociology, economy, ecology, etc.) enriches theological understanding, while theology contributes ethical, spiritual, and existential grounding that secular science alone often does not address. Furthermore, in pluralistic and often secular public arenas, Life-and-Death Education offers common ground for dialogue without requiring uniform religious commitments, making it a practical entry point for public theology.

As a public theological endeavour, Life-and-Death Education can foster holistic educational curricula, religious formation, and public discourse that reflect contemporary cultural realities. It can incorporate empirical methods (qualitative and quantitative surveys, ethnography), philosophical inquiry, and religious traditions to nurture responsible citizenship, ethical sensitivity, and well-being. Such an integrative approach bolsters religious education against secular marginalization and aligns faith-based reflection with pressing social and ethical issues.

Life-and-Death Education from Secular Scientific Perspective

In the contemporary global context, Life-and-Death Education has increasingly been a focus within secular sciences. This field integrates multidisciplinary scientific, philosophical, sociocultural, psychological, and educational perspectives to provide a holistic understanding of life and death, beyond religious frameworks. It involves empirical study, theoretical analysis, and practical pedagogy, emphasizing personal well-being, human development, mortality awareness, and coping mechanisms—all within a secular, evidence-based approach. In other words, Life-and-Death Education as a field is not confined to religious or metaphysical traditions but is robustly supported and enriched by secular scientific disciplines and humanistic philosophies. It is a vital area of inquiry and instruction that cultivates mature, reflective, and resilient individuals and communities able to engage thoughtfully with the realities of mortality. In effect, Life-and-Death Education is fully compatible with integration into secular scientific disciplines, serving as a crucial educational focus to foster comprehensive understanding and meaningful engagement with mortality and life’s value. Going beyond the traditional biological or medical studies of death, it takes up psychological coping, philosophical meaning-making, social perspectives, and educational engagement.

Thus, Life-and-Death Education amidst secular sciences in the perspective of public theology entails a holistic interdisciplinary dialogue that enriches religious understanding and pedagogy through engagement with secular knowledge, pluralistic cultures, and ethical imperatives. This approach fosters integral human development and common good in a transdisciplinary perspective, embracing religious pluralism, ecological concerns, and social justice.

Therefore, educational process intersecting secular sciences and public theology cannot be considered merely an academic exercise; it is a comprehensive, life-orienting project. It empowers learners to navigate the complexities of modernity with intellectual independence and ethical awareness, promoting a harmonious relationship between scientific knowledge and the pluralistic values of contemporary society. While challenges persist—especially in contexts where religious and secular worldviews intersect—thoughtful pedagogy that respects diversity and emphasizes universal values can enable education to serve life genuinely and equitably amidst the secular sciences.

Life-and-Death Education in the Public Sphere of Higher Educational Institutions

On the basis of the foregoing considerations, Life-and-Death Education can be understood to complement traditional lifespan development studies (cognitive, emotional, social, and moral development) by introducing reflective and existential dimensions. It broadens educational goals from learning quantitative and factual knowledge toward embracing personal meaning, ethical deliberation, and spiritual awareness. It enhances students’ agency to face life challenges with optimism and mature reflection on mortality and life’s purpose.

Fittingly, Life-and-Death Education addresses pressing societal predicaments such as youth mental health, emotional aloofness, obesity, nihilism, violence, suicidal tendencies, alcoholism, drug and internet addiction, grief, and ethical decision-making around death. It fosters open dialogue about death in schools, colleges, and universities, countering cultural taboos and psychological avoidance by encouraging critical thinking, emotional competency, and meaning-making. Emerging intersections with ecology and socio-political issues (e.g., climate crisis, ecological angst) extend this education to collective mortal awareness beyond the individual.

Being at the core of the formative process, Life-and-Death Education transcends secular–academic boundaries by integrating diverse worldviews of Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Jainist, Confucian, and Western existential philosophies. Such pluralism enables students to explore death and life through culturally informed epistemologies, mitigating fear and fostering acceptance. Life-and-Death Education cultivates respect for diverse beliefs, thereby expanding critical thinking and intercultural competence. It equips educators and educands to participate actively and responsibly in complex public realms characterized by diversity.

Specifically, the Life education component of the curriculum focuses on cultivating positive life functioning through aspirations, values, life wisdom, and spiritual cultivation (e.g., meditation and mindfulness). And in multireligious contexts, the curriculum generally includes Christian Studies, Religious Studies, Values Education, Human Rights Education, and Environmental Studies. Life Skills Education (promoted by the Indian National Education Policy 2020) can be incorporated, comprising communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making, analytical thinking, resilience, and employability. Life Skills Education is a comprehensive strategy that can cover the practical sectors of Physical Education and Sports, Social Education and Services, Groups and Movements, Counselling and Accompaniment, etc., to prepare students for personal fulfilment, social responsibility, and productive citizenship in the 21st century. Complementing these, the Death education component addresses attitudes toward mortality, grief, and coping mechanisms (e.g., holotropic breathwork), reducing death anxiety and avoidance.

On the basis of the foregoing elucidation, Life-and-Death Education can be understood to constitute the vital bedrock of academic college/university education, enabling students to grapple meaningfully with the conditions of existence, mortality, and the quest for life’s purpose. Far beyond mere knowledge acquisition, it can nurture emotional resilience, ethical insight, physical and intellectual well-being, thereby enriching the educational experience and preparing students for holistic life challenges (Yuan & Zhou 2023). The successful integration of Life-and-Death Education, with the inclusion of its core ideas in the curricula of various scientific disciplines, cultural features of extracurricular activities, symbolic facets of institutional environment, and pedagogical dynamics of empathic accompaniment, can promote human well-being and societal harmony (Anthony & Lourdunathan 2025). Obviously, this would require appropriate qualification not only of professors dealing with Life-and-Death Education, but also of those engaged in the other academic curricula. Likewise, there is a need to integrate other key dynamics of Life-and-Death Education: family involvement (Long et al. 2023) and intergenerational learning (Cheng 2024).

The focus of the present Special Issue, then, is to carry forward the emerging discussion and research on Life-and-Death Education at the Intersection of Public Theological and Secular Sciences. In other words, the scope of the Special Issue is to explore the innovative aspects emerging from the intersection of public theology with each of the secular sciences (biology, physics, chemistry, ecology, sociology, economics, commerce, history, linguistics, cultural studies, mathematics, data science, human resource development, psychology, communication, philosophy, etc.) in terms of the main ideas of Life-and-Death Education. The expertise of scholars in the specific sectors of secular scientific or public theological spheres can contribute to the emerging arena of Life-and-Death Education, and to the wider humanizing educational process.

Such a task is feasible by the fact that sciences, to a great extent, share the material object of their study, namely, the specific aspects of human reality and/or the associated wider reality, even as they differ in the formal object (i.e., in the perspective from which they study the material object) and the methodology with which they investigate it. This allows for intradisciplinarity (i.e., incorporating the methodology of other sciences), interdisciplinarity (i.e., engaging in intersecting and enriching dialogue with other sciences), and transdisciplinarity (i.e., sharing a common objective that transcends the specific sciences in dialogue).

Aiming to inspire creative contributions, here are some examples of how secular science and public theology intersect in the sphere of Life-and-Death Education. Take the case of Biology: it can enrich Life-and-Death Education by providing rigorous explanations of life’s nature and death’s processes at molecular, cellular, organismal, and ecological levels. This knowledge demystifies mortality, supports compassionate care, drives ethical discourse, and nurtures a holistic understanding that combines science with the human experience of living and dying. On the other hand, theological insights and public engagement that uniquely qualify public theology can enrich Life-and-Death Education on multiple levels: cognitive, emotional, ethical, and communal.

Secondly, Psychology can contribute to Life-and-Death Education by addressing ethical and cultural complexities, and enhancing the emotional and cognitive growth necessary for living fully with awareness of mortality (Phan et al. 2020). Public theology, in turn, can foster moral and compassionate responses, promote dialogue in pluralistic settings, and support spiritual formation. In doing so, it can help individuals and communities to navigate life’s ultimate transitions with hope, dignity, and a sense of the common good.

Economics, a third example, can contribute to Life-and-Death Education by illuminating the sharing of scarce resources, the behavioural and societal responses to mortality, systemic inequalities affecting the value of life, and the intersection of economic systems with human lifespan and death. Public theology, in turn, can offer resources that are transformative not only at the individual level but also for societal structures navigating life-and-death realities.

Fourthly, let us consider the intersection of Mathematics and Public theology in Life-and-Death Education. Public theology can play a transformative, ethical, and dialogical role in the process of Life-and-Death Education by providing a moral and spiritual framework that complements the rational and quantitative insights of mathematics. It can foster meaning, ethical reflection, and communal solidarity in grappling with life’s ultimate questions, such as mortality, dignity, and the value of human life, while mathematics supplies precision, modelling, and decision-making tools to educate about risks and realities related to life and death.

The final example refers to Tamil literature, the most ancient living language with its classical literary period dating back farther than 6th Century BCE. Tamil literature can contribute to Life-and-Death Education by providing a moral and philosophical framework that respects life and prepares the individual for death with dignity, offering spiritual solace and cultural meaning through devotional and epic narratives, encouraging ethical conduct and social responsibility that resonate with human mortality, facilitating emotional and cognitive tools to understand suffering, loss, and impermanence, and serving as a vital cultural repository that sustains Tamil identity and continuity amid changing modern contexts. The depth and diversity of the Tamil literary tradition, which includes Sangam literature (Tirukkural, Silappatikaram, Purananuru), Bhakti poetry, Pathinenkilkanakku moral texts, and the works of Kambar, Subramania Bharati, etc., equip educators and educands with the ability to engage with the profound realities of life and death thoughtfully, compassionately, and meaningfully. Obviously, something similar can be said about the literature from any language. By applying rigorous linguistic analysis and tailored language strategies, Life-and-Death Education becomes more accessible, culturally sensitive, and effective—directly impacting outcomes with the potential to enrich lives and honour human dignity.

In this vein, theoretical and empirical studies can focus on a wide variety of issues related to Life-and-Death Education in which any sector of public theological and/or any of the secular sciences intersect:

• The relevance of Natural Sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry, and biology), Formal Sciences (e.g., mathematics, logic, computer science), or Applied Sciences/Engineering to human well-being, common good, and other aspects of Life-and-Death Education.
• The contribution of Social Sciences (e.g., sociology, psychology, economics, and politics) or Humanities (e.g., philosophy, literature, history, and arts) to human well-being, common good, and other aspects of Life-and-Death Education.
• The significance of Public Theology, specifically considering Public Practical Theology (Pastoral Care, Community building, … amidst neighbour religious communities), Public Systematic Theology (Dogmatic and Moral Theology, … amidst religious pluralism), Public Historical Theology (Decoloneal Theology, Local Ecclesial and National History, Global Church History, and World History), or Public Scriptural Theology (Bible amidst Scriptures of Religions, Religious and Ethical Literature in various languages), in Life-and-Death Educaton.
• Exploring the intimate and intersecting relationships between life and death, along with the meanings ascribed to them, between human well-being and socioeconomic oppression, etc., through Public Theology and/or Secular Sciences.
• The contributions that Public Theology and/or Secular Sciences can make with reference to pressing societal predicaments such as youth mental health, emotional aloofness, obesity, nihilism, violence, suicidal tendencies, alcoholism, drug and internet addiction, grief, ethical decision-making around death, global warming, ecological crises, social inequality, war, and destruction.

Prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors are invited to submit a title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest Editor at bircpt_director@shctpt.edu and to the Religions Editorial Office (bella.xu@mdpi.com) as early as possible, but not beyond the deadline of 1 February 2026. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor to ensure their proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts of at least 6000–10,000 words will undergo double-blind peer review. Final manuscripts can be submitted at any time before 30 April 2026.

We await your valuable contributions exploring Life-and-Death Education at the Intersection of Public Theological and Secular Sciences.

References

(Anthony 2025) Anthony, Francis-Vincent. 2025. Configuration of Public theology as theology in ‘Exit’: Engaging the Public educational sphere amidst religio-cultural pluralism. Kristu Jyoti 41(1): 14–41.

(Anthony and Lourdunathan 2025) Anthony, Francis-Vincent, and Antony Christy Lourdunathan. 2025. Public religious pedagogy amidst religious pluralism: Qualitative study among Hindu and Muslim educators in Salesian institutions of Tamil Nadu, India. Religions 16(5): 646. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050646.

(Cheng 2024) Cheng, Hao. 2024. Seeing life through life: Unpacking life education in intergenerational learning in China. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11: 1048. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03551-y.

(Gu 2013) Gu, M. 2013. The essence of education is life education. Curriculum, Teaching Material, and Method, 9: 85. https://doi.org/10.19877/j.cnki.kcjcjf.2013 .09.018.

(Long et al. 2023) Long, Jiangli, Wanwei Dong, Shengmei Luo, and Jiangmei Long. Research on optimization strategies of Life education for college students. Adult and Higher Education 5: 20. https://doi.org/10.23977/aduhe.2023.052013.

(Marty 1974) Marty, Martin E. 1974. Reinhold Niebuhr: Public theology and the American experience. Journal of Religion 544: 332–359.

(Phan et al. 2020) Phan, Huy P., Bing H. Ngu, Si Chi Chen, Lijuing Wu, Wei-Wen Lin and Chao-Sheng Hsu. 2020. Introducing the study of Life and Death Education to support the importance of Positive psychology: An integrated model of philosophical beliefs, religious faith, and spirituality. Frontiers in Psychology 11: 580186. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.580186.

(Phan et al. 2023) Phan, Huy P., Si-Chi Chen, Bing H. Ngu and Chao-Sheng Hsu. 2023. Advancing the study of Life and Death Education: theoretical framework and research inquiries for further development. Frontiers in Psychology 14: 1212223. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1212223.

(Yuan & Zhou 2023) Yuan, Suojun, and Longjun Zhou. 2023. Life education for college students: A case study of Life education in Chinese universities. Science Insights Education Frontiers 17(2): 2741–2749.

Prof. Dr. Francis-Vincent Anthony
Guest Editor

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• life education
• life and death education
• public theology
• secular sciences
• human well-being
• common good
• intradisciplinarity
• interdisciplinarity
• transdisciplinarity