The Rationalist Way of Death

Quicksearch

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Thursday, September 5. 2013

The Rationalist Way of Death

The rationalist way of death

Given that it has historically been annexed by religion, how should the non-believer mark death? Jonathan Rée dons his weeds and joins the procession.

A quote:

As far as the old-style rationalists were concerned, any desire to ritualise death and remember the dead was a sign of a failure of nerve, and an inability to grow out of religious indoctrination – especially all that Christian stuff about personal survival, arraignment before a divine judge and consignment to heaven or hell. But in fact Christianity does not speak with one voice when it comes to death and dying. In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus issued a severe reprimand to a disciple who wanted to give his father a proper funeral: get back to work at once, he said, and “let the dead bury their dead.” The rebuke may seem like an enlightened anticipation of 20th-century rationalism, but it is also perfectly consistent with some main doctrines of Christianity: if the body is just a temporary home for an immortal soul, and a perpetual temptation to sin, then the sooner we shuffle it off the better.

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:34 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

I think there is slight misinterpretation in Mr. Ree's understanding of the Gospel. The reprimand is meant to explain the cost of faith, that the man who excuses himself to bury his father is really just avoiding commitment in order to return to his old and comfortable ways of paying lip service to faith. The dead burying their dead are the faithless pretending faith. It is truly a hard saying but not a rebuke of sentimentality or remorse.

From Luke, Chapter 9:

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

#1 Nat Brooks on 2013-09-05 14:51 (Reply)

I agree fundamentally with Nat. It may even have been that the man's reply, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father" wasn't a literal matter of his father having died, but his way of saying, "I'll follow you, Lord, after my father is dead and gone."

#1.1 steve boggs on 2013-09-05 16:24 (Reply)

Yes, that's my understanding as well.

#1.1.1 tnxplant on 2013-09-05 16:45 (Reply)

... if the body is just a temporary home for an immortal soul.... Mighty big if.

#2 BillH on 2013-09-05 14:51 (Reply)

RE: body is just a temporary home for an immortal soul

I'd be curious to see what main doctrines of Christianity he refers to, at any rate the early Christians believed in a bodily resurrection at the Final Judgement.

#3 todN on 2013-09-05 17:42 (Reply)

I'm rather partial to the Klingon belief "Do what you will."(with the body). "It is now just an empty shell"
But Believing in a Resurrection, I don't know what will be more mind blowing: Christ return, or all those bodies coming back to gather!

#4 Jerry on 2013-09-06 01:34 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email	(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications. Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u], [url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here. Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: BBCode format allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Maggie's Farm

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Thursday, September 5. 2013

The Rationalist Way of Death