Clergy and Funeral Directors: An Exploration in Role Conflict

Bradfield, Cecil D.; Myers, Robert A.

doi:10.2307/3509813

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In a Catholic funeral in the USA, therefore, the body is supercharged with meaning -social, economic, and religious. Viewing the body, however, is of no interest to municipal institutions nor to the world view of Protestantism, and hence is not at all central to the municipal funerals of Protestant northern Europe, while in the USA some Protestant ministers have promoted closed-casket funerals (Dowd 1921;Fulton 1961;Bradfield & Myers 1980;French 1985;Laderman 2003). France is different in that culturally it is part secular, part Catholic (Kselman 1988;Badone 1989Badone , 1990, while institutionally funeral directing and cemetery management are highly municipalized.…”

Section: Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three ways to arrange a funeral: Mortuary variation in the modern West

Walter¹

2005

Mortality

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Why do funeral practices vary between modern western countries? In the mid-nineteenth century, managing the rapidly expanding number of corpses had to be controlled and rationalized, but this control could be exercised by business, the municipality, or the church, leading to three pure types of funeral organization -commercial, municipal, religious -and a number of mixed types. These institutional types interacted with wider cultural factors to create in each country an identifiable national solution to the problem of disposing of the dead in a mobile, urban, modern society. By the late twentieth century, a global demand for more freedom and individuality spawned reform movements, targeting a different bastion of institutional power in each country.

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Section: Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three ways to arrange a funeral: Mortuary variation in the modern West

Walter¹

2005

Mortality

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“…The questionnaire and interview schedule were developed based on several sources: review of the literature; informal conversations with local directors; and in sigh ts from previous research (Bradfield and Myers, 1980). The resultant questionnaire and interview schedule contained both open and closed questions.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This was the approximate number of respondents in the previous clergy research (Bradfield and Myers, 1980). Five of these were returned undelivered by the postal service.…”

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confidence: 99%