A Depersonalised Object of Hope in a Funeral Sermon

Abstract

In this article, the author calls attention to a danger of proclaiming a depersonalised object of hope in a Christian funeral sermon, which he does not consider to be a legitimate Christian practice. The author reached this conclusion based on his analysis of one particular sermon from his research sample of 3x50 funeral sermons from three different church traditions (Lutheran church, evangelical churches, and Roman Catholic church). In the aforementioned funeral sermon, the object of hope was found to be articulated in a depersonalised form – the hope is not the eternity with the Lord, but simply: heaven. Christ is, in this particular sermon, merely a means by which the hearers may obtain their desired goal. Even though this funeral sermon was formulated using Christian terminology and was delivered by a Christian preacher, the author of this article does not regard its fundamental approach as Christian.