Methodists Customs in Death

The Methodist tradition has much to say about death and dying. Both in Methodist history and in Methodism's beliefs about death, dying, and the afterlife, the religion is one that addresses the prospect of death positively. Believing Methodists view death as an entrance to heaven and a blissful eternal life in the presence of God rather than as a passage to be feared. Nevertheless, from its early beginnings under John Wesley, the Methodist tradition, particularly with reference to funerals, has evolved substantially. This paper will examine Methodism in terms of its history, its traditional beliefs, and its practices with respect to funerals, incorporating quotations from John Wesley where applicable, as well as from the literature. It will conclude with a brief summary and insights on death and dying in Methodism.

The Methodist religion began at the very end of the 18th century in England, with four key young men-John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, plus Robert Kirkham and William Morgan-who had "banded themselves together for mutual assistance both in scholarship and piety" (Daniels, 1880, p. 43). Agreeing to spend three to four evenings every week reading the Greek Testament and the Greek and Latin classics for improving their minds, these four young men additionally decided to adopt a set of "rules for holy living" based on observing the duties set forth in the Prayer Book of the English Church (Daniels, 18

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e. The belief that earthly life served solely as a prelude for death and eternal life was slowly being eroded by an attachment to the material world, and with it an uncertainty about what, if anything, came after death (Tucker, 2002, p. 199). The view was that "decisions made during life were therefore inseparably connected to what came after life [as] upon death, according to Wesley, the souls of the deceased would enter an intermediate, penultimate state in which they would remain until reunited with the body at the resurrection of the dead (Tucker, 2001, p. 202). That state was various referred to as "the ante-chamber of heaven," "Abraham's bosom," and "paradise" (Tucker, 2001, p. 202). There, the believer would "gain a foretaste of heaven, converse with the saints of all ages, and be 'perfected' and 'ripened' for the heavenly realm" (Tucker, 2001, p. 203). For the unregenerate wicked, however, the intermediate state was "a foretaste of unavoidable hell" (Tucker, 2001, p. 203). This ascension to heaven in the afterlife was guaranteed "only to the saints in Christ" (Tucker, 2001, p. 203). Methodists were known for their "happy dying," a phenomenon in which the dying experienced great joy as an outgrowth of their da

Category: Philosophy - M