RELIGST 2M03 Lecture Notes - Funeral Director, Antiseptic

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 2M03
• Professor: Sherry Smith

Document Summary

Film notes: (1998; 25 min. from series death: a personal understanding ) A community comes together in the ritual of the funeral. Rituals make feeling and faith tangible; drawing them into the physical world. Honoring beliefs, marking loss, giving voice to grief. In a moment of crisis rituals tell us that we are not alone. Rituals for the dead body reveal our fears about death. Cremation fire takes over weak body; purifies, cleanses. Embalming masks rather than confirms reality of death; makes it seem almost pleasant; body made to look asleep. Ron grimes: offers personal account; expresses need for ritual that is meaningful. Use of objects associated with the deceased offered to coffin, grave. Rituals of death can help when grief is bewildering, loss seems too great to bear; link us to continuity and to those who grieve with us; Help us to face that which we find hard to comprehend;