Death-ly Thoughts
8th June 2005
I found Rodney Olsen of The Journey vexing thanatological (haha, always wanted to make that into a sentence!) today. Well, he was responding to a post from Annie Rambles, and projected to what might happen to his body after his death. Does he want a memorial service? How does he want his loved ones to remember him? Does he want to be buried? Or does he prefer to be cremated instead? Actually he does, and he would like his ashes to be scattered.
Apparently one of his commenters suggested that cremation is a pagan practice, and that the only Christian practice is burial. Hmmmm… that made me wonder… I have heard years ago that some people who did not believe in the resurrection insist on being cremated and having their ashes scattered so that it minimizes the possibility that the body could be resurrected!! Hah! As if!!
On another score, we also read that the Jewish custom in New Testament times was to place bodies embalmed with fragrant spices in caves. I am not sure when the custom of burying bodies started, or even if the practice is particularly “Christian”. Further I am not sure when placing bodies in caskets started. I wonder if all this really matter!
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