Religion and fear of death among older Dutch adults

A qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 26 older Dutch participants was performed to elucidate the complex relationship between religion and death anxiety. Whereas participants expressed seven types of lived religion (lacking, lost, liminal, loose, learned, lasting, and liquid religion), only participants with loose or lost religion expressed death anxiety. This supports previous research indicating that moderately religious people fear death more than nonbelievers or highly religious people. Moreover, the naturalness of death, the length of their life span, the death of others, the goodness of life, and the hope to live on in others also provided acceptance of death.