"Martin Luther's Eschatology Addressing the Issue of "Famadihana" in Context of the Malagasy Lutheran Church"

Death, souls, and afterlife issues have been always present in African society, and indeed in Madagascar, for a long time. Fear of death and uncertainty about afterlife bind people in worshiping and venerating death. Evangelization done by westerns missionaries have tried to deal with those issues in one way or other. But till now, after 150 years of existence for the Malagasy Lutheran Church, Christian’s faith-based doctrines concerning those issues are not yet able to have roots in the African context and produce only syncretism. One form of this syncretism is the practice of the “Famadihana” or the ritual of turning the corpse that is still common even among Christians.