The Secularisation of Ritual: Cremation and Dissection

Abstract

The ancient Jews buried their dead. In the Roman Empire, both burial and cremation were practised, but the early Christians practised burial — perhaps because of their origins in Judaism where burial was normal, perhaps because of the association of burning with martyrdom. Once the Roman Empire became officially Christian under Constantine in the early fourth century, burial became the norm for Europe. It was not until the 1870s and 1880s, a millennium and a half later, that cremation was seriously reconsidered. True to the times, the advocates of cremation — such as Sir Henry Thompson, an influential member of the London artistic and intellectual elite (1874) — used utilitarian arguments concerning public health: cremation was hygienic, efficient, modern, a mark of progress. The ash could be used in farming, leading to savings on imported fertiliser. Thompson also appealed to sentiment: in a society in which cleanliness was next to godliness, contemplation of the human body rotting in the ground was less than attractive.

O death, where is thy sting?

O crematorium, thine is the victory!

(Lampard, ‘Theology in Ashes’, 1994)

Cremation, in this country, is basically a secular arrangement to which religion has become attached.

(Bond, ‘Architecture for Mourning’, 1970, p. 90)