Rather they are motivated by a heterodox view of the body or of death, a kind of latent Gnosticism that assumes the immortal soul will have no more to do this body. Cremation simply speeds the process along. (Perhaps this were all who are committed to place and localism can regard the Christian faith with respect — even if they wish to live in Tibet.). So I believe the narrative, and buy into traditions, but many of the stones the modern Church is built on are flawed, as were the stones the Temple Jesus tore down and rebuilt in three days. No fancy casket. I didn’t quite read all of the comments, so someone may have already covered this, but I wanted to post two things that don’t seem to have been mentioned in our discussion, but I think are important aspects. when Christ returns. Piper also says that cremation can be viewed as anti-biblical due to the Bible’s many references to hell and evil being associated with fire. Nowhere in the New Testament is there a record of a believer being cremated. If anything here is “gnostic” it’s the uncharitable attitude of this piece that (somehow) right knowledge without charity is enough. On that note, I find it hard to believe this question has not come up more frequently. If you want to cast off all Church traditions that call themselves “theology” which are not founded in scripture, then you’ve gonna have to cast out scripture too. Just a couple of parting thoughts. When people owned a little land, they could own a little burial plot. With the rising cost of funeral expenses today, many people are choosing cremation instead of burial. For the present, not so much. Cremation was historically associated with pagan practices that Jews are repeatedly enjoined in the Torah to reject. Wonderful essay. If we haven’t been involved in making this decision already, most of us have loved ones who prefer cremation and think of it in positive terms (my own mother!). For most of us, whatever flavor of Christianity we prefer, cremation is largely of function of negligence, ignorance, or forgetfulness. There is little Christian about arguing for individual salvation. I accept the idea of the Trinity, but I still wrestle with its reality in my daily life. Jordan, how is it even possible for God to judge a nation and still hold that God judges individual too? Cremation may be a reaction to the de-Christianiziation of America as the author seems to claim but just a importantly it could also be a reaction against the excessive cost of funeral services these days. From pages 36 and 37 of this pdf of Together with all Creatures: http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/TWAC-Expanded%20Version.pdf. He would get roasted!! And to date I either haven’t been willing to make the significant compromises required to return to it, or God has not yet finished with me in the desert and I am not ready to return. I think the critical point is not that cremation somehow impedes the resurrection. a butterfly from a chrysalis. If EVERYONE opts for a cemetery plot this is going to cause some serious space issues eventually. brings about our transformation along with that of all creation (Romans 8). Some of these, like nitrous oxides and heavy metals, … costs $10k. (Because I believe that God judges both nations and individuals. Though most religions do permit cremation, some don’t, such as Islam and Orthodox Judaism. OK, I suppose we could argue the point about whether animals and other created beings and things may also receive grace; but my point is that “culture” is nothing more than an abstraction of the human language. My Church admits the possibility of universal salvation, but also proclaims any insistence on it to be heretical. What are the grounds for making anything stronger than a “tradition” out of something not even mentioned in Scripture? That would be presumptuous of me.). If you are R.C., you can’t make this claim, as any authority you have is trumped by Paul VI. Ok, what exactly ARE your reasons for supporting cremation? that my original post seemed to lack for some of you. There are no short cuts in the process. entire cosmos with all its history.”196 His resurrected body provides the para- Let me offer another possibility. Perhaps it is enough to say that since burial is conventional, traditional, the-way-its-always-been-done then the burden of proof is on the proposed innovation, in this case cremation. I think that’s a pretty dangerous road to go down. Berry, however, does not mention cremation anywhere that I recall. No, they may also just be ignorant of the history and theology of the thing, and how it is a thoroughly pagan practice. “Christians have always done X” is an argument based on tradition, not theology. '” The fact that MacCullough is not a conservative or traditionalist makes his conclusion all the more weighty. I had many Christian friends of various denominations; the consensus among all was that “Christians don’t cremate, they bury.” The move towards cremation was, like so many other negative things in the wider church, due to the infection of mainstream Christianity by progressivism/liberalism in the 60s. God’s done it before. As Paul put it, “There is neither Jew nor Greek…for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”. But I opted for burial implicitly when I decided 13 years ago to believe and obey the Church instead of rolling my own rules. Of coyrse it;s also true that Greek and Roman men of property and status often had concubines– mistresses– on the side, but those women never had legal status, and the practice of course persisted in the Christian era almost down to our own day. Studies of emissions reveal that cremation turns people into at least 46 different pollutants. Nations are definitely not abstractions of the human language, they are living organisms. To be frankly honest, I’m not sure I’m opposed to cremation, but I am astonished that someone is seen as just CRAZY for, you know, advocating what the vast majority of Christians have always believed in all places up until the past fifty or sixty years. It also, I think, best explains that “truth” or “revelation from God” (in my experience) is something that precludes any notions of objectivity or subjectivity. 1. Cremation turns your body into air pollution and barren ash. If anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know. Perhaps those of us who aren’t religious or lack the proper intelligence will have to find like-minded lovers of place elsewhere, where we won’t be condescended to by preachers and professors more concerned with showing off their moral superiority than welcoming outsiders into the debate. The Old Testament records several instances of Jewish bodies being cremated, but always under unusual circumstances. Can you imagine if David showed up on FPR to defend his actions? We should not assume that God will simply annihilate this present Catherine Pickstock notes how the modern polis is designed accordingly: “this evasion of the dead and dying is manifest in the extradition of the dead to a position at the margins of the city during the Industrial era, the removal of the dying to the functional space of hospitals, in the discreet elimination of corpses, and in the domestication and beautification of death”[4]. God with the world we know, the world whose frustrated beauty makes us You may disagree, but I find your disgust at the practice to be puerile at best. Today, Christians can express the charity and love of Christ in the face of death by allowing their organs to be used to give sight, health, and life to others. Christian anthologies, including India and Nepal, cremation on an issue is problematic, whether witness... 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