The Funeral

The Christian attitude toward death, based on hope and confidence in Christ's victory over death, was one of the most important ways Christianity differed from the ancient culture into which it was born. As Christianity became inculturated in the Middle Ages, Christian rites surrounding death and burial were among the most important ways that an entire culture, however imperfectly, took on the impress of the Christian faith. Despite the ambivalent and even bleak regard of death in modern society, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant funeral services continue to proclaim the Christian hope of resurrection, as shown in this section.…