Funeral sermon

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A Christian funeral sermon is a formal religious oration or address given at a funeral ceremony, or sometimes a short time after, which may combine elements of eulogy with biographical comments and expository preaching. Historically such sermons were very often prepared for publication, and played a significant part in Lutheran, and later in Puritan, presbyterian, and nonconformist literary cultures, in Europe and New England. They also were and are common in Christian denominations generally.

Contents

The early modern funeral sermon was structured around and began with explication of a biblical text. [1] It in that way was distinguished as a genre from the eulogy and other types of funeral orations and obituary addresses. For women, in England at least, "exemplary eulogies" would be constructed from female Biblical figures, sometimes displacing the subject's agency outside domestic life. [2]

Lutheran, Calvinist and Puritan traditions

Martin Luther preached on the death in 1525 of Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, and in 1532 for the death of John, Elector of Saxony. These sermons are extant. The subsequent Lutheran tradition of the Leichenpredigt was said to stem from Luther's example, and has been given scholarly attention, in the period of mid-16th century to mid-18th century. [3] The printing of funeral sermons had become normal by around 1550, and over 200,000 German funeral homilies survive. [4]

The model for Protestant funeral sermons was outlined in De formandis concionibus sacris by Andreas Hyperius (English translation 1577). [5] In his schematic, praise in preaching was only for the godly dead; it needed to serve exhortation and exegesis, the former having two audiences, "godly" and "the multitude". [6]

The initial Calvinist attitude was different from the Lutheran. An early Protestant hurdle for Calvinists was Pierre Caroli's advocacy of prayers for the dead. [7] Amy Nelson Burnett has argued that, mid-16th century, the Reformed churches of Basel and the Palatinate were exceptional in the sermons at funerals. [8] Under Elizabeth I some English Puritan ministers opposed funeral sermons. By the beginning of the 17th century, however, views had changed and funeral sermons had become standard in the Reformed tradition. [9] Diarmaid MacCulloch writes that Puritans "came to abandon their dislike of the panegyric funeral sermon". [10]

In New England at the middle of the 17th century funeral rituals were still sparse. The funeral sermon then came in as a vehicle for jeremiad. [11]

The Catholic tradition

The French bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet owed much of his reputation as an orator to a series of funeral addresses on prominent persons of the reign of Louis XIV. He built on existing structures for such sermons, innovated and spoke at length, and included accessible religious instruction alongside laudatory comments. Research has recovered many other early modern Catholic funeral sermons. [12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Goodland, Katharine (2006). Female Mourning in Medieval and Renaissance English Drama: From the Raising of Lazarus to King Lear. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 108. ISBN   978-0-7546-5101-7.
  2. ↑ McCullough, Peter; Adlington, Hugh; Rhatigan, Emma (4 August 2011). The Oxford Handbook of the Early Modern Sermon. OUP Oxford. pp. 171–172. ISBN   978-0-19-923753-1.
  3. ↑ LeRoux, Neil R. (2007). Martin Luther As Comforter: Writings on Death. Brill. p. 134. ISBN   978-90-04-15880-1.
  4. ↑ Kolb, Robert (31 August 2008). Lutheran Ecclesiastical Culture, 1550-1675. Brill. p. 131. ISBN   978-90-474-4216-5.
  5. ↑ Breitwieser, Mitchell Robert (1990). American Puritanism and the Defense of Mourning: Religion, Grief, and Ethnology in Mary White Rowlandson's Captivity Narrative. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 58. ISBN   978-0-299-12654-4.
  6. ↑ Martin, Jessica (2001). Walton's Lives: Conformist Commemorations and the Rise of Biography. Oxford University Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN   978-0-19-827015-7.
  7. ↑ Holder, R. Ward (9 June 2022). Calvin and the Christian Tradition. Cambridge University Press. p. 191. ISBN   978-1-316-51294-4.
  8. ↑ Tingle, Elizabeth C.; Willis, Jonathan (9 March 2016). Dying, Death, Burial and Commemoration in Reformation Europe. Routledge. p. 42. ISBN   978-1-317-14749-7.
  9. ↑ McIntosh, Marjorie Keniston (6 June 2002). A Community Transformed: The Manor and Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower 1500-1620. Cambridge University Press. p. 85 note 235. ISBN   978-0-521-89328-2.
  10. ↑ MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1990). The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603. Macmillan. p. 139. ISBN   978-0-333-41928-1.
  11. ↑ Hammond, Jeffrey A. (1 June 2000). The American Puritan Elegy: A Literary and Cultural Study. Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–89. ISBN   978-1-139-42977-1.
  12. ↑ Eijnatten, Joris van (31 January 2009). Preaching, Sermon and Cultural Change in the Long Eighteenth Century. Brill. pp. 28–29. ISBN   978-90-474-2487-1.

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