At my Notion Club Papers blog; I discuss the question of why Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, spent so much time and effort on conducting Boromir's funeral; when it seems like a more urgent and vital necessity to pursue Merry and Pippin, and rescue them from captivity by the orcs.
Note: I like the atmosphere of the above illustration - which captures the spirit of the occasion. But it looks rather as if Boromir had had most of his legs cut-off by the Uruk Hai; and surely Legolas would not wet his bowstring in the River Anduin. Also (contra Peter Jackson), according to Tolkien, Boromir did not have a beard, due to his Numenorean/ part-Elvish ancestry.
2 comments:
Bruce, I have noticed that of the many wakes or services for the dead people say things like " the service brings people together or to remember the deceased". This is true for relatives and clergy alike. But I have yet to hear a cleric say that it is possible that the deceased may still be present and is aware of our prayers . For many the service is a social gathering, which is fine, but lacks any depth of feeling. Maybe modern society has lost its soul and therefore cannot make rational decisions about saving itself which looks more and more to be the case.
@agraves
My understanding is that for most Protestants (at least of the evangelical type) the dead are understood to go into an insensible state until judgment day, and prayer cannot affect their salvation because "the tree lies as it falls". Hence there are no prayers for the dead of any kind. I regard this understanding of salvation as a compounded theological error.
But Catholics are different (including Anglo Catholics within the Church of England) - "officially" Catholics believe that salvation is not fixed at mortal death, and they include services and prayers for the spiritual benefit of the dead.
But what you describe for funeral services seems more like evidence for lack of real Christian faith, than a theologically principled behaviour. It is a typically this-worldly expression representing the real concerns of the modern churchman.
For myself; I think that *loving" thoughts, meditations, prayers of the still living *can* be decisive in the choice of salvation among post-mortal spirits. And the opposite way around too - loving attention from the resurrected dead (and the knowledge they impart) may be decisive in the choice of salvation both before and after our mortal death.
In other words, I regard the idea that "the deceased may still be present and is aware of our prayers" as one of the single most important beliefs a Christian can have.
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