Brazilian Protestants in the Face of Death and Mourning: remarks on Mortuary Rituals

Abstract

The main features of the beliefs and representations of Brazilian mission Protestant and death can be easily observed in the mourning period, during mortuary rituals or the burial. They externalize the representations in the form of singing, the chanting of scriptures in sermons or in emotional prayers. In Brazil, Protestants consider themselves antipodal to Catholicism and spiritualism kardecist. They do not believe nor in purgatory neither in the intercession of masses for the souls or reincarnation. At the same time, their funerary rituals are changing and more exposed to the secularization process. They tend to perform the funerals no longer in temples; to control their discourses and expression of emotions; to accepted organ donations and cremation and to show a loss of interest in dead bodies after the burial.