A practical theology of bereavement care: Re-ritualization within a paradigm of “comforting presence”

• Published in: Stellenbosch theological journal Vol. 4; no. 2
• Main Authors: Gibson, L, Louw, DJ
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-01-2018
• ISSN: 2413-9459; 2413-9467
• DOI: 10.17570/stj.2018.v4n2.a24

The investigation focuses on a concern for the marginalization of bereaved human beings in the context of cultural shifts now shaping twenty-first century pastoral care. The article advocates for a practical theology of bereavement to aid in nurturing care and eudaimonic well-being (including both vocational pastors and funeral directors) within the paradigmatic framework of a theopaschitic understanding of compassion (oiktirmos). The investigation examines the growing threat of deritualization – a public openness to revise, replace, minimize the significance of, and even eliminate or avoid long-held funerary rituals to assist in the adaptation of loss. The notion of re-ritualization is operationalized as an intentional act of restoring and re-engaging in creative and meaningful ritual forms that give symbolic expression to significant thoughts and feelings of the bereaved within a social ethos that is no longer committed to a conventional or fixed approach to ritualization. In order to facilitate a process of re-ritualization, bereavement care is linked to the notion of “comforting presence”.