GENESIS AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF FUNERAL SERVICES IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION OF THE 5TH CENTURY

Sergey Petrovich Bakhtin

Kostroma Theological Seminary, Kostroma, Russia

Email: s.p.bakhtin@mail.ru

ORCID: 0009-0008-3876-9380

Issue: № 3 (23), 2023

Pages: 19

Annotation

A special place in various religions has always been occupied and is occupied by both ideas about the afterlife and the death of a person, as well as rituals (and prayers) related to death, burial — funeral prayers and rituals. Religious consciousness is characterized by the need for prayer, i. e. in communion with God. Such important moments in a person's life as his birth, marriage, and death are sanctified by prayer, appropriate rites and sacred rites. Death in all religions is understood not as the final destruction of the personality, but as a certain moment in a person's life, his transition to another state in which the life of the personality continues. The pinnacle of the Christian teaching about the afterlife is the teaching about the universal resurrection in the body. And death is understood in the Christian tradition as an important moment of a person's transition to eternity, where he will meet God. Therefore, in the Christian Church, from the very beginning of its existence, the death of a person has always been accompanied by prayers and rituals. Despite the conservatism, the Church's resistance to various kinds of changes in the ceremonial side of its existence (which has various reasons), the liturgical forms gradually underwent changes, which often reflected changes in religious beliefs. The texts of funeral services have also undergone changes: some prayers are still used in worship, some have remained in history, and these texts are no longer referred to today as models of prayer, but as sources of knowledge about the past. The formation of the funeral service rite took place gradually. In the early Christian tradition, there is a variety of liturgical forms, the preservation of the practice of prayers by inspiration (the so-called charismatic prayers) until a certain period. In addition, the liturgical forms were formed in isolation (which does not exclude influences or mutual influences at all) like local traditions. The history of the Christian liturgical tradition before the c. traditions is characterized by the initial diversity of local independent ones, which gradually developed along the path of unification

Keywords

death, burial, funeral service, christianity, ancient Church

For citation

Bakhtin S. P., deacon. Genesis and historical development of funeral services in the christian tradition of the 5th century // Ipatievsky vestnik. 2023. № . 3. Р. 19–42 (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.24412/2309–5164–2023–3–19–42