09/10/2026
"When people ask for their ashes to be scattered on a favorite hillside or in a well-loved river or along a shoreline, we can sympathize with the feeling (though not, perhaps, with denying the bereaved a specific spot to visit in their grief). But the underlying implication, of a desire simply to be merged back into the created world, without any affirmation of a future life of new embodiment, flies in the face of classic Christian theology."
- N.T. Wright, "Surprised By Hope"
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A few notes from Fr. Andrew:
- Regarding returning to dust being best expressed by cremation, that itself is an argument against the resurrection, as though "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" really is the end, as though dust is our ultimate destination. But it's not. That's a result of the Fall, i.e., of sin. This is countered beautifully by the reality of incorrupt relics of saints, whose bodies do not decay or decay only partially. The resurrection is, in a sense, breaking through.
- Vaults and embalming are not critical to burial, so while arguments against those practices in particular could be made, they don't actually refute the 2000-year Christian practice of burying the dead rather than cremating them.
- Some are concerned that cremation is the only option for the impoverished. It's not actually true that this is always the cheapest option. Further, parish volunteers can do much of the work for free. Read "A Christian Ending" by Mark and Elizabeth Barna for details on how a parish can perform this important ministry.
- Some say that the ground should instead be put to agricultural use. The amount of ground used for burial does not in any way meaningfully detract from ground needed for agricultural purposes. Even if it did, there would be plenty of other kinds of real estate uses that could be better put to agriculture than to upend Christian funereal tradition so entirely.
- Yes, certainly, God can resurrect anyone from any state. But to dismember the body *deliberately* is, I think, much more of a "wanna bet?" toward the resurrection than traditional burial is toward the pre-resurrection bodily state.
- No one's arguing that cremation will actually affect whether one is resurrected, including for those who are accidentally burned, etc. (or who, by government edict, have to be cremated). The point is that it is an action *against* the resurrection, even if a futile one. It's interesting to note that the earliest known martyrdom of a Christian by fire (St. Polycarp of Smyrna) was immediately followed by the Christians there carefully taking up his bones for burial. That is, even though he had been burned to death, they still regarded his remains as something precious and worthy of honor.
- Cremation isn't a benign burning process. It does involve burning, of course, but it is also the grinding of bones, crushing them into pieces so that nothing recognizable is left. And if there are any metal prosthetics in the body, they are often piled up and then sold for scrap. If we genuinely believe that the body of the person in front of us really is their body, and we love them, and if we really believe that that body will be resurrected, which makes more sense -- lovingly to lay them to rest or violently to shred them and incinerate them?
- Another argument I will add is from history: It is not as though cremation was unknown to Christians or impossible, yet for 2000 years nearly every Christian who ever lived was buried, precisely because of the belief in the resurrection and in imitation of the burial of Jesus Christ. Cremation really only began to be practiced by (a relative few) Christians starting in the late 19th c.
- Some may argue that the dismemberment of the body in cremation is not essentially different from the division of the relics of the saints so that they can be venerated in multiple places. There is a big difference between violently destroying a body and reverently and carefully removing portions of relics so the bodily presence of the saints can be in a new place.
- And another historical argument: Cremation was associated most with pagan religions, which is one of the several reasons why Christians did not accept it.
- I wonder whether anyone would considered it to have been appropriate for Jesus to have been cremated. How would that have changed the resurrection story?
- For these and other reasons, Orthodox Christians are not cremated nor are funerals done for those who do get cremated. (It is sometimes said that Japan is an exception because the government mandates cremation, but I've been informed by an Orthodox Christian living there that this actually is not true.)
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A couple resources:
https://store.ancientfaith.com/cremation-an-orthodox-view/
https://store.ancientfaith.com/a-christian-ending/
