Christian Death Evolution Of Culture: 1 To 17th Century

Throughout history human beings have been preoccupied with the problem of death except the problem of living. Being faced with the puzzle of death, religions provide us with the ultimate concern. Death is also the most important thing to religions especially to Christianity. Christianity reflects the culture with sense of sin, so it prefers death to living. This dissertation is doing research on the culture of Christian death. It starts with two landscape orientations-the idea and ritual and reveals the transformation of Christian death. In process of history, the culture of Christian death is in a state of changing, undergoing four phases.This dissertation is composed of an introduction, text and appendix. The text is divided into four chapters.Chapter I discusses the formation of the culture of Christian death. Christianity was formed in the early first century in the Rome Empire. It was mostly influenced by two kinds of culture: the Hellenic-Rome culture and the Hebrew-Judaism culture. As a consequence, the culture of Christian death assimilates them and forms its own idea and ritual. This chapter pays attention on the formation of the culture of Christian death.Chapter II discusses the consolidation of the culture of Christian death. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the uniform Western Europe went to disintegrate. From the late 5th century to the 12th century, most areas of religious life in Christian Europe were characterized more by diversity than by uniformity. In the period of Carolingian reform, the ruler of the government endeavored to reestablish a uniform culture of Christian death. The end of the 9th century saw the culmination of a centuries-long process of ritual creation in Western Europe. From then on the consolidation of the culture of Christian death was appeared.Chapter III discusses the development of the culture of Christian death. Inthe 12th century, a new belief in Purgatory came into being. This chapter is to trace the formation of the idea of Purgatory through time, from its roots in antiquity to its final emergency with the flowering of medieval civilization in the second half of the 12th century. The new culture of Christian death began to dissimilation in the late middle ages.Chapter IV discusses the reformation of the culture of Christian death. During the period of the Reformation, Luther attacked on the traditional culture of Christian death. He denied the belief in Purgatory, and separated the dead from the living physically and spiritually. Luther Protestant developed its own culture of death gradually in the 16th and 17th century. It affected the later history deeply.The idea and ritual of Christian death embody infinite information of culture, but my finite knowledge causes me to research on their changing process simply. Inevitably I leave much to study in the future.