의례적 기능과 목회적 돌봄의 관점으로 보는 기독교 장례예식의 구성

Abstract

Historically, Christianity has been very familiar to the funeral rite. Christianity had been persecuted from very beginning period, and the result of the persecutions were connected to the death of the Christians. The early Christians had performed the funeral rite for the martyrs, who died to defend their faith in God, to commend their spirits to God as well as to commemorate their respectful lives. This funeral tradition has still lasted in Christian tradition, today. The funerals from the other religious traditions than the Christianity also have the function to send the spirit of the dead from this world where the living one exist to the posthumous world where the dead one sent. This function absolutely exists in every funeral rites in various traditions. This function is a basic purpose as well as the core of the funeral ritual. Therefore, in this paper, I researched what the functions of the funeral rite based on the functionalistic and structural theories of cultural studies especially focusing on thw works of Anold van Gennep and Victor Turner are, and how these theories are applied to the Christian funeral rites. Sending the spirit of the dead to posthumous world is not the only function of every funeral rites but consoling the bereaved, such as the family, relatives, and friends of the dead who suffer from the death of their lovely one, and comforting their minds are also important things in the funeral. The bereaved and related people of the dead gradually receive the fact that their precious one is dead during the funeral rite in which they recall the times with the dead, and realize the dead one move from their community to the place where he or she rests in safe. Through this ritual process, they recognize the disconnection to the dead one in their lives, though, they are able to overcome their sorrow and suffering from the loss of the dead, and return to their daily lives. The funeral rite, therefore, is the most powerful action of the pastoral care. In this research, I proposed that the funeral rites of the Korean Protestant church lack the function of consoling and healing for the bereaved family and related people of the dead in light of the area of pastoral care. To overcome this weak point, Korean Christian funeral should be the “mourning-communitas,” which merges the recalling the good narratives related to the dead person as well as the eschatological expectation of all participants. Researching this topic, I have reached a conviction that the constructing the effective new meaning-making process in Christian funeral, mourning to the dead and consoling the bereaved, which are very crucial issues of pastoral care area, should aim at continuing the memory of the dead, rather than severing from the dead. For this continuation of the memory, constructing the funeral rite based on meaning-making theory in which all people are available to participate in the funeral rite to shape the mourning-communitas. Especially, the most effective method to construct the mourning-communitas is performing Christian Eucharist in funeral rite, which has begun in early Christian funeral. Performing Eucharist in Christian funeral gives the crucial theological meanings that the communion with the living and the dead is possible when the participants eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, transcending the limitations of time and space. This theological event as a symbolic ritual also gives all the participants the feeling the mourning-communitas.