Stating what he considers to be life's most important question—“what is the significance of annihilation?”—the author proposes that if one is to live well, one must grasp the continuity of death with life, to live with death always in mind, but without being overwhelmed by it. Throughout history the issue of death has been dealt with either in the language of transcendence, or by the humanistic denial of any connection between the living and the dead. In exploring the problem of the continuity of life and death, Alford examines the Greek tragedies and the work of Robert Jay Lifton. He points out that our culture, in lacking images of transcendence, as well as images of family continuity, is similar to the culture of ancient Greece. In the