Download or read book The Reformation of the Dead written by C. Koslofsky and published by Springer. This book was released on 1999-10-21 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Koslofsky examines the human encounter with death in Germany from the eve of the Reformation to the rise of Pietism. The Protestant Reformation transformed the funeral more profoundly than any other ritual of the traditional church. Luther's doctrine of salvation 'by faith alone' made the foundation of the traditional funeral, intercession for the dead in Purgatory, obsolete. By drawing on anthropological interpretations of death ritual, this study explores the changing relationships between the body, the soul, the living and the dead in the daily life of early modern Germany.