CREMATION

CREMATION. Cremation is proscribed for Orthodox Christians by Byzantine Canon Law (qq.v.). The original ban was made due to the associations of cremation with paganism and possibly also gnosticism (q.v.). Cremation in Roman pagan religion (and in Russia) was an expensive rite, easily the most lavish of ancient burial practices (q.v.). For pagans or gnostics who denied the value of the body and creation’s goodness, cremation represented an affirmation of the valuelessness of the body-as it also affirmed the victory of an intangible spirit, that is a spirit disassociated from the body. Such an attitude may be contrasted with Jewish and Christian attitudes expressed toward Jesus’ body by Joseph of Arimathea in the Gospels (a Jewish attitude which fulfills the Law) or that of the early Christians toward Polycarp’s (q.v.) body in the early 2nd c. in the Martyrdom of Polycarp, an early attestation to the Christian practice of venerating relics.

Recently a debate has been generated in the United States and Japan where cremation is the most modest burial in urban areas. The argument has been advanced that since cremation is no longer considered a pagan rite, but is frequently the only burial that can be afforded by the poor, it should once again be permitted (and has been on a limited basis by some clergy). On the opposite side are those who say that cremation still implicitly denies the value of the body, and therefore people who consider their bodies worthless or vile will be attracted to cremation. Last, cremation might also prevent the preservation of relics.