While I have never heard a sermon or Bible study on the disposal of human bodies after death, it is a subject which the Early Church Fathers had something to say. Many consider it only a matter of preference or personal choice but the Fathers seem to indicate that certain types of disposal were considered non-Christian and therefore unacceptable for Christians. Far from portraying one option as good as another, they speak definitely against cremation as the following passages will illustrate.
Tertullian in responding to the pagan’s criticism of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, gives the following in On the Resurrection of the Flesh.
The resurrection of the dead is the Christian’s trust. By it we are believers. To the belief of this (article of the faith) truth compels us—that truth which God reveals, but the crowd derides, which supposes that nothing will survive after death. And yet they do honour to their dead, and that too in the most expensive way according to their bequest, and with the daintiest banquets which the seasons can produce, on the presumption that those whom they declare to be incapable of all perception still retain an appetite. But (let the crowd deride): I on my side must deride it still more, especially when it burns up its dead with harshest inhumanity, only to pamper them immediately afterwards with gluttonous satiety, using the selfsame fires to honour them and to insult them. What piety is that which mocks its victims with cruelty? Is it sacrifice or insult (which the crowd offers), when it burns its offerings to those it has already burnt? [ANF 3: 545; treatise VI; ch. I]
St. Irenaeus tells us what the custom of the Christians was in regard to bodily disposal in this beautiful passage from the Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus:
We therefore have formed the belief that [our] bodies also do rise again. For although they go to corruption, yet they do not perish; for the earth, receiving the remains, preserves them, even like fertile seed mixed with more fertile ground. Again, as a bare grain is sown, and, germinating by the command of God its Creator, rises again, clothed upon and glorious, but not before it has died and suffered decomposition, and become mingled with the earth; so [it is seen from this, that] we have not entertained a vain belief in the resurrection of the body. But although it is dissolved at the appointed time, because of the primeval disobedience, it is placed, as it were, in the crucible of the earth, to be recast again; not then as this corruptible [body], but pure, and no longer subject to decay…. [ANF 1: 570; fragment XII]
In case anyone would accuse the Christians of avoiding cremation because of a fear of some loss, Minucius Felix dispels that notion in The Octavius.
Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved into moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is withdrawn from us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the elements. Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss from sepulture [note says “by burning”], but we adopt the ancient and better custom of burying in the earth. [ANF 4: 194; ch. XXXIV]
Much like the ancient Jews, the Early Christians believed it was the duty of the believers to see to the proper burials of believers who could not afford it. In fact, according to the Letter of the From the Roman Clergy to the Carthaginian Clergy, About the Retirement of the Blessed Cyprian, this was considered a “duty” which could involve “considerable risk” if neglected.
And, as matter of the greatest importance, if the bodies of the martyrs and others be not buried, a considerable risk is incurred by those whose duty it is to do this office. [ANF 5: 181; epistle II; par. 3]
Lactantius speaks of the same duty in The Divine Institutes.
The last and greatest office of piety is the burying of strangers and the poor; which subject those teachers of virtue and justice have not touched upon at all. For they were unable to see this, who measured all their duties by utility. For in the other things which have been mentioned above, although they did not keep the true path, yet, since they discovered some advantage in these things, retained as it were by a kind of inkling of the truth, they wandered to a less distance; but they abandoned this because they were unable to see any advantage in it.
Moreover, there have not been wanting those who esteemed burial as superfluous, and said that it was no evil to lie unburied and neglected; but their impious wisdom is rejected alike by the whole human race, and by the divine expressions which command the performance of the rite. But they do not venture to say that it ought not to be done, but that, if it happens to be omitted, no inconvenience is the result. Therefore in that matter they discharge the office, not so much of those who give precepts, as of those who suggest consolation, that if this shall by chance have occurred to a wise man, he should not deem himself wretched on this account. But we do not speak of that which ought to be endured by a wise man, but of that which he himself ought to do. Therefore we do not now inquire whether the whole system of burial is serviceable or not; but this, even though it be useless, as they imagine, must nevertheless be practised, even on this account only, that it appears among men to be done rightly and kindly. For it is the feeling which is inquired into, and it is the purpose which is weighed. Therefore we will not suffer the image and workmanship of God to lie exposed as a prey to beasts and birds, but we will restore it to the earth, from which it had its origin; and although it be in the case of an unknown man, we will fulfil the office of relatives, into whose place, since they are wanting, let kindness succeed; and wherever there shall be need of man, there we will think that our duty is required. But in what does the nature of justice more consist than in our affording to strangers through kindness, that which we render to our own relatives through affection? [ANF 7: 177; bk. VI; ch. XII]
While there is no direct quotation saying, “Thou shalt not burn thy dead,” it is clear from the writings and history of the Early Christians that they did not cremate their dead and that they considered it a heathen practice. As one person said it, “If burial was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.” Homespun as that is, I cannot help but feel much the same way. And this is especially so since His followers who had the apostolic tradition passed to them felt the same way.
