Death and Bereavement: The Role of the Black Church
- 1 April 1976
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying
- Vol. 7 (1) , 23-34
- https://doi.org/10.2190/akbg-j436-13x3-ty2h
Abstract
The role of the Black Church in death and bereavement is explored by a Black African clergyman-pastoral psychologist and an American social psychologist. As expressed in Black spirituals, major death themes include death as a symbol for liberation, as an integral part of life, as the basis for fear, as cessation of this life but not extinction of all life, and as social extinction. Case history material is also cited. Description and analysis of Black funerals suggests that grief work is facilitated by the relatively free expression of feelings.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Anticipation of Futurky as a Function of Ethnicity and AgeJournal of Gerontology, 1974
- The Management of Grief: A Study of Black Funeral PracticesOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 1973
- Phenomenological Reality and Post-Death ContactJournal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1973
- The Black Experience with Death: A Brief Analysis through Black WritingsOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 1972
- Use of the Death Anxiety Scale in an Inter-Racial JettingOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 1972
- Life and death: Dividing the indivisibleSocial Science & Medicine (1967), 1968