Final Will for Religious Studies

The Final Will

In this paper, I have decided to plan my own funeral, but I do not plan on writing it only as an academic paper but one similar to a type of final will that I hope will reach the hands of my closest family and friends. In this way, they will know what my final wishes were and how I would like them to be conducted. These are the final words to the final chapter of my life. I will be addressing those closest to me, in hopes that they will respect my wishes and honor my final requests. Although specific circumstances may differ once I have passed, I hope most of what I ask for can be corresponded into my funeral. I plan to incorporate Van Gennep’s concept of passage of rites as a part of my death. I believe that upon the news of my death, those closest to me will follow the three rites of passage—separation, transition, and incorporation—in the way I hope they will do so. It should be noted that perhaps this is one of the most important aspects of my funeral as it attributes to the where/why/how of my death, followed by the mourning and burial ritual, and finally concludes with how I hope my family and friends will incorporate this loss into their lives. Therefore, separation, transition, and incorporation will each be their own subtopic discussing how the death will occur, with whom, and where and what this will mean in terms of the overall funeral process. Another important topic that will be discussed is the religious influence within the entire process and what that will be mean especially in terms of life after death. And finally, I plan to discuss the ‘why’ factor of every decision and request that has been made. Every thought that has been put into this paper has a purpose and a reason behind its place in my funeral.

A break-down of the entire paper will go as follows:

The introduction will start off by addressing my closest friends and family, whom have just been made aware of my death. The why, how, where and with whom of my death will...