Re: [asa] burial customs

Quick & dirty: Israelite custom, at least for those moderately well to do
or better, was to place the body in the family tomb - cf the account of the
burial of Sarah & subsequent placements of the patriarchs in the family
tomb. When the body had decayed & only bones were left they eventually
would have been swept together to make room for new arrivals - hence being
gathered to the ancestors in a quite literal way. Early Christians resisted
cremation because it was associated with Greco-Roman paganism. That became
a more solidly entrenched (excuse the pun) custom exacerbated later in the
Enlightenment when cremation was used by so-called Freethinkers &c to
proclaim their disbelief in the resurrection. But even the RC church has
not been dogmatic about this & allowed cremation in the case of, e.g.,
epidemics.

OTOH traditionally Christian burial was without embalming & often without a
coffin. ("Casket" is a funeral industry euphemism - caskets are for
jewels.) At New Melleray, e.g., the monks are simply buried in shrouds.
Thus they'll decay relatively quickly, bringing out the fact that in the
long run there's little difference between cremation & inhumation as far as
what happens to the body. There is no fundamental theological reason to
prefer burial over cremation, & in fact care for creation would seem to
point toward the later procedure. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

There are, as you note, other practices - friends & family eating the body
(e.g., some of my pre-Christian Irish ancestors), placing bodies on towers
to be picked clean by birds (Zoroastrians), etc. These are not likely to
catch on today.

FWIW, my wife & I have made provisions to be cremated (after we're dead!)
with burial of the ashes (not "cremains", another funeral industry
abomination) in the memorial garden at St. Paul's, where I was on staff
before I retired. I've buried some ashes there myself after funerals &
committals - an instructive experience.

Shalom
George
http://home.roadrunner.com/~scitheologyglm

----- Original Message -----
From: <mrb22667@kansas.net>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 5:52 PM
Subject: [asa] burial customs

>
> This is a spin-off from all the 'morals' posts. But can anyone give a
> history
> of how burial customs for humans came to be? I don't remember any
> Biblical
> passages that endorse any specific practices other than the plenty of
> passages
> that recognize the "cursed" state of one whose body is left for wild
> animals or
> birds. Presumably this is more a reflection on the fact that they have no
> family or loved ones left (or who care about them enough) to bury them.
> But in
> this the Bible may simply be picking up on surrounding cultural values
> that were
> already in place, and in fact never really endorses them --i.e. "Thou
> shalt
> bury thy dead." I guess it could be implied in some of the purity
> instructions,
> given that dead bodies are "unclean".
>
> But given all this, what is it today (other than highly $$ motivated
> funeral
> industry) that morally motivates us to seal our fresh corpses into
> concrete
> vaults where they can now spend decades as rotting mush instead of the
> mere
> years necessary if we'd just let nature have at it? How are some of the
> aboriginals so wrong having a party to eat their dead after they die? As
> far as
> I can tell, cannibalism is also a cultural, not a biblical taboo, as long
> as
> there is no murder involved. Of course, the local health department
> will
> probably have a thing or two to say if a family wants to make a buffet out
> of
> their late uncle Johnny. But practical concerns aside, what are some of
> the
> sources of these "morals", if that is even the right category for them.
>
> --Merv
>
> personally, I think being eaten has a lot more appeal than being sealed in
> a
> small water-tight box. --the ultimate in economical cremation: let
> nature
> scatter you abroad. could be disconcerting to surviving family to see
> parts
> laying around, though... I do understand that.
>
>
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
> "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Tue Oct 27 20:44:48 2009