In Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered are:
* Osiris and Isis: the life theology of Ancient Egypt
* burying the Jewish dead
* Roman religion and Roman funerals
* Early Christian burial
* the nature of martyrdom.
Jon Davies also draws on the sociological theory of Max Weber to present a comprehensive introduction to and overview of death, burial and the afterlife in the first Christian centuries which offers insights into the relationship between social change and attitudes to death and dying.

Jon Davies was until recently Head of Department of Religious Studies at the University of Newcastle, where he now teaches part-time.

Introduction PART I Death in the Ancient Near East 1 Osiris and Isis: The life-theology of Ancient Egypt 2 Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda and Ahriman 3 Canaanites and Mesopotamians 4 Mere texts or living realities? The possible influence of the older thanatologies on Judaism and Christianity PART II From caves and rock-cut tombs to Judaism 5 The general archaeology of the Ancient Near East 6 Judaism: Towards the common era 7 Burying the Jewish dead 8 Good luck with your resurrection! Opening the heavens and raising the dead PART III Romans and Greeks: A theodicy of good fortune? 9 Roman and Greek philosophies of death 10 Roman religion and Roman funerals 11 Ovid's 'ever-varying forms': Greek mythologies, sarcophagi and the boundaries of mortality 12 Ovid's 'bonds of love and duty': Funerals, epitaphs, orations and death in the arena PART IV Christians, martyrs, soldiers, saints 13 Christian burial 14 The nature of martyrdom, Epilogue: Sacrificial living and sacrificial dying: Christians in the world