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A Christian burial is the burial of a deceased person with specifically Christian ecclesiastical rites; typically, in consecrated ground. Until recent times Christians generally objected to cremation, and practiced inhumation almost exclusively, but this opposition has weakened, and now all but vanished among Protestants. Catholics are now able to be cremated also, and this is rapidly becoming more common, but the Eastern Orthodox churches still mostly forbid it. ==History and antecedents of Christian burial rites== ===Early historical evidence=== Among the Greeks and Romans, both cremation and burial were practiced. However, the Jews buried their dead. Even God himself is depicted in the Torah as performing burial: "And () buried him (Moses) in the depression in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor. No man knows the place that he was buried, even to this day." (Deuteronomy 34:6). Early Christians used only burial, as can be demonstrated from the direct testimony of Tertullian〔Tertullian, ''De Corona'' (in Migne, ''Patrologia Latina'' (), II, 92, 795); cf. Minucius Felix, ''Octavius'', xi (P.L., III, 266)〕 and from the stress laid upon the analogy between the resurrection of the body and the Resurrection of Christ ().〔cf. Tertullian, (''De Animâ'', LV ); St. Augustine, ''De civitate Dei'', I, 13〕 In the light of the dogma of the resurrection of the body as well as of Jewish tradition,〔Cf. Tobit 1:21; 12:12; Sirach 38:16; 2 Maccabees 12:39〕 the burial of the mortal remains of the Christian dead has always been regarded as an act of religious import. It is surrounded at all times with some measure of religious ceremony. Little is known with regard to the burial of the dead in the early Christian centuries. Early Christians did practice the use of an Ossuary to store the skeletal remains of those saints at rest in Christ. This practice likely came from the use of the same among Second Temple Jews. Other early Christians likely followed the national customs of the people among whom they lived, as long as they were not directly idolatrous. St. Jerome, in his account of the death of St. Paul the Hermit, speaks of the singing of hymns and psalms while the body is carried to the grave as an observance belonging to ancient Christian tradition. Several historical writings indicate that in the fourth and fifth centuries, the offering of the Eucharist was an essential feature in the last solemn rites. These writings include: St. Gregory of Nyssa’s detailed description of the funeral of St. Macrina, St. Augustine’s references to his mother St. Monica, the ''Apostolic Constitutions'' (Book VII), and the ''Celestial Hierarchy'' of Dionysius the Areopagite. Probably the earliest detailed account of funeral ceremonial which has been preserved to us is to be found in the Spanish ''Ordinals'' of the latter part of the seventh century. Recorded in the writing is a description of "the Order of what the clerics of any city ought to do when their bishop falls into a mortal sickness." It details the steps of ringing church bells, reciting psalms, and cleaning and dressing the body. Traditionally, the Christian Church opposed the practice of cremation by its members. While involving no necessary contradiction of any article of faith, it is opposed alike to ancient canon law and to the usages (''praxis'') of antiquity. Burial was always preferred as the method of disposition inherited from Judaism and the example of Jesus' burial in the tomb.〔 〕 During times of persecution, pagan authorities erroneously thought they could destroy the martyrs' hope of resurrection by cremating their remains. Though the church always taught that the destruction of the earthly remains posed no threat to the bodily resurrection,〔Marcus Minucius Felix, ''Octavius'' (P.L., III, 362)〕 many Christians risked their lives to prevent this desecration of the relics of the saints. Furthermore, the bodies of Christians were considered to have been sanctified by baptism and the reception of the sacraments, and thus were to be treated with dignity and respect, as befits a "Temple of the Holy Spirit" (, ). In reaction against the Christian opposition to cremation some have deliberately instructed that their remains be cremated as a public profession of irreligion and materialism.〔 The revival of cremation in modern times has prompted a revision of this opposition by many Christian churches, though some groups continue to discourage the practice, provided there is no intent of apostasy or sacrilege. During the Middle Ages a practice arose among the aristocracy that when a nobleman was killed in battle far from home, the body would be defleshed by boiling or some such other method, and his bones transported back to his estate for burial. In response, in the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII promulgated a law which excommunicated ''ipso facto'' anyone who disembowelled bodies of the dead or boiled them to separate the flesh from the bones, for the purpose of transportation for burial in their native land. He further decreed that bodies which had been so treated were to be denied Christian burial.〔〔Boniface VIII, ''Extrav. Comm.'', Lib. III, Tit. vi, c. i.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Christian burial」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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