Religion And Society Cat 1 Analysis. The Belief Of The Resurrection Of The Dead And The Life Everlasting. Essay, Research Paper

Religion and Society CAT 1 : Analysis

The belief of the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting.

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The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the heart of Christian teaching and belief. Over its 2000-year history, the belief has never changed. What has changed is the interpretation, emphasis or the attitude. Proof of this can be found in two sources: scripture and tradition.

The belief is expressed in Paul s first letter to the Thessalonians. It is also expressed in the multiply attested gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Apostles Creed.

Also, the belief is expressed in the Eucharistic celebration, a ritual that commemorates our collective identity, and in the role of the major Councils like Nicea, Trent and Vatican II.

We believe that Jesus died and rose again (1)

Paul s First letter to the Thessalonians is likely to be the oldest extant Christian writing. It was written to answer questions about the return of Christ.

Paul wrote that because Jesus died and rose, there is no need to grieve or mourn. He said that death should be a joyful occasion.

… you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised … (2) This quote, expressing the belief of a resurrected Christ, is multiply attested in the synoptic gospels.

Christian Creeds are a short and formal statement of religious belief, written to correct any detail of the death and resurrection of Christ that may seem uncertain or unclear. In the early ages, a creed was used to refute the Arian Heresy. Arius questioned Jesus divinity. He had been preaching the Son as being inferior to the Father (3). That is, the Son is of like substance (homoiousion) with the Father.

In response to this, a council, in 325 AD, was set up to clarify church teaching and doctrine. They argued: Only if Christ was truly god can he unite us to god (3). In John s Gospel, we read: no one can come to the Father except through me . The Niceno-Constantinapolitan Creed, later produced by the council, affirmed the belief of a Trinitarian God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father God does no make Jesus – Jesus is begotten. Also, the Son is not of like substance with the Father. The Son is of one substance (homoousion) with the Father.

Also, the council stressed the 12th Article of the Creed: we look for the resurrection and the life of the world to come (4)

Phillipe Aries, in The Hour of Our Death , talks of two psychological attitude to death. The earlier he refers to as the Tame Death .

The early Christians knew that because Jesus died and rose, God had conquered the powers of evil and gave the promise of eternal life to all. Those who believe in Christ Jesus will never die. This is expressed in John s Gospel as a parable: unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit (5)

The Israelites did not grieve, as Paul told them, and saw the occasion as a joyful triumph, a return to a loving father, and a union with the company of saints in the hope of the resurrection (6) They believed that death is a time of rejuvenation, rest or sleep. A temporary condition; The day of death is one s birthday into eternal life and the Eucharist is celebrated on the anniversary (6).

The funeral rites expressed the attitude of this time period. The image of God is the loving Father, the creator. There is an image of the dead as resting in the bosom of Abraham (6).

Family or friends would wash and prepare the body. It would be buried in the family garden. There are happy psalms, flutes, flowers, white vestments, etc, etc. The body is wrapped in linen, a symbol of the white cloth during baptism. The sprinkling of water is to recall the saving waters of baptism. Through baptism we enter fully into the Paschal Mystery. We are baptized into the death of Jesus so we can rise with him to a new life (7)

Then, there is the procession to the place of burial, the actual burial itself, and then the commemoration of the dead.

In the middle 14th Century, the Black Plague struck Europe. This caused people to begin questioning the purposes of a god. It wiped away one-third of the European population. The plague had a big impact on the Christian religion and people started to percieve the image of an angry, punishing, pessimistic God, a God whose mercy must be sought.

Society s attempt to explain the plague leads to superstition, predictions of the end of the world, and a gang of flagellants who would whip themselves in a form of self-penance and beg for god s mercy. This may he deserve now to be spared the weight of your vengeance (8)

Deliver me, Lord from everlasting death on the day when the heavens and the earth are to be shaken to their foundations, as you come to judge the world by fire. I tremble with fear when I think upon the heart searching there must be and upon your wrath let loose upon mankind. (8).

With the rise of the concept of death as death of the self , a number of changes took place. God was no longer seen by the people as the caring father , but was feared. The Theological concept of hell and purgatory, the place of judgment, became known. Heaven was no longer an automatic entitlement. This is expressed in the Rituale Romanum (1614 Funeral Rites). The paschal themes of joy and hope are lost. Instead, there is a concentration on the theme of sin, guilt and punishment. The whole liturgy is sorrow, almost to the exclusion of any paschal motifs.

The burial location is in the church as opposed to the home. This was due to the increasing importance of absolution as part of the deathbed rite (6). The water is no longer linked to the saving waters of baptism but was a symbol for the absolution of sin, wash me cleaner yet from my guilt, purge me from my sin (8).

Everyone wore black vestments, perhaps to express the darkness of death. There were black candles, no flowers, and somber chants like Dies Irae

This attitude to god survived for years and years until later revised by the people of Vatican II.

There was a great cultural awakening of philosophy, literature and art during 1450AD. This was known as the Renaissance (Rebirth). The emphasis was on the individual rather than the community. Some people involved in the Renaissance included Leonardo Da Vinci, Erasmus and Shakespeare. They valued reason and logic above all else. Rene Descartes summarizes all this in a key quote: I think, therefore I am .

Although this is the situation, the Renaissance-men were not anti-religious. However, the work of the humanists in the classical languages, such as Erasmus Greek New Testament, fuelled the demand for reform of the church.

In 1517AD, in Wittenberg, Luther challenged the teachings of the church. He questioned the selling of indulgences (ticket to heaven) in order to raise money for the building of St Peter s Basilica in Rome.

The church s response to this was the council of Trent, which, like Nicea, affirms the Creed. The core belief of the death and resurrection of Christ is upheld.

The council produces The Catechism – a letter of church doctrine. They reaffirmed many teachings. They explained that all , because there is no distinction between good and bad in scripture, should rise to eternal life. As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. (9)

Trent also proposed four different conditions for the body: Impassibility, Brightness, Agility, and Subtility. It is important that the faithful understand that the raised body, although substantially the same, shall be vastly different and changed in its condition. (10).

The 20th Century saw many events. Many third-world countries grew in Christian population – in Africa, in Asia, in South America. After World War II, giant leaps in science and medicine were made. The Sexual Revoultion hit in the 60’s, putting issues like abortion and contraception into the spotlight. This raised new moral and ethical questions and the church responds with the calling of Vatican II to answer these questions.

Pope John XXIII called Bishops from all round the world to an ecumenical council. There were 2500 bishops in total. The bishops discussed every phrase of Catholic life. Many things were revised and it is evident in many rituals and liturgies. A good example is the Revised Funeral Rites, among the first to be revised.

The 1969 decree of the Congregation for Devine worship states that the revised rites need to clearly express the paschal character of the Christian s death (11).

The new funeral rites linked the sprinkling of holy water back to baptism. The baptismal foundation of the spiritual bond that extends beyong death is expressed in the meaning given to the traditional symbol of sprinkling with holy water. (12)

Other baptismal symbols included the Easter candle that expressed the light of Christ, and the pall – a white cloth that covered the coffin and expressed hope and salvation.

Placed on the coffin of the deceased are Christian symbols: A bible, symbolizes that the dead live by the word of god; the cross, symbolizes the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus; and a personal memento like a footy jumper.

The readings were mainly to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. There is the Eucharist, the central celebration of the paschal mystery , and the final commendation.

With the change by Vatican II, Christians express more fully the hope and promise of Christ to have life to the full. They see God as a God of mercy and passion. They eagerly await death in the hope of resurrection and union with God.

God has called man with his entire being that he might be joined to Him in an endless sharing of a divine life beyond all corruption for by His death, He freed man from death (13)

1. 1 Thessalonians 4:14

2. Mark 16:6

3. The First Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church

4. The Nicene Creed

5. John 12:24

6. Facing Death : A historical perspective. By Joanne Pierce

7. Romans 6:3-4

8. Rituale Romanum : translations of the original Latin text.

9. 1 Corinthians 15:26

10. Catechism of the Council of Trent

11. 1969 decree of the Congregation for devine worship

12. OCF, 36

13. Gaudium Et Spes, paragraph 14.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Churches Story

By Shane Clapsos

National Centre for Religious Studies 1994

Catechism of Pius X

The Death of a Christian : The Order of Christian Funerals

Revised Edition.

Pueblo Publishing Company, 1980

Saint Search

Vatican II in plain English : The Council.

Thomas Moore Publishing

By Bill Huebsch

Good News Bible

American Bible Society

Revised Edition, 1994