Death and Bereavement: The Role of the Black Church

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.