Death and Funeral of Christian Tradition in Korean Protestant Context

Abstract

Based on these different understandings of death, Korean funeral has been developed as a combined one. In a Korean Christian funeral, it is not hard to find other religious and cultural elements. From the beginning, it is not easy to articulate how the Korean Protestant Church comprehends funeral rites. There is very little information about this topic, and materials about funeral practices and rites in the Korean Protestant Church. Liturgically and systematically, the Korean Protestant church neither examined theoretically nor engaged in research regarding the funeral practices and rites. Directly speaking, it seems to me that the Korean Protestant Church does not even articulate a basic outline of its funeral services. In general, a Korean Protestant church is based on evangelical and reformation tradition. In the worship book of the main Korean Protestant Churches, Korean traditional elements are easily found in their service orders for funerals. However, a Korean Protestant church has not yet articulated why these elements are deeply practiced in the worship service nor how the Korean Protestant Church understands these traditional elements that are prohibited in the name of pagan culture. Therefore, I do not think that the Korean Protestant church has successfully adapted Korean traditional cultures into the worship services for the dead in the Korean Protestant churches. Without recognizing what the traditional and cultural elements are and what they mean, the Korean Protestant church just accepts the funeral services in its worship book according to its denomination. In the Korean Protestant church, the funeral services mostly consist of a concept of logos. From the beginning of the service to the end of it, the written statements are constantly repeated as prayers, hymns, scripture readings, and the sermons by the pastor. There is only one communication channel that glides away from the pastor to the participants in the service. There is no bodily movement. It is not inclusively allowing the participants to involve in the funeral service but just passively sitting on the chair. The Korean Protestant church deleted all the liturgies in traditional funeral practice, but snatched some of meanings from the traditional funeral practice and reformed it in the church worship setting.