UPDATED: Sept. 6, 2023
Natural Burial: The Final Journey is no longer available as a free, downloadable Bible study as it has become the basis for the book, Lay Me in God’s Good Earth: A Christian Approach to Death and Burial, available from InterVarsity Press in 2024.

Dr. Kent Burreson, associate professor of Systematic Theology, and Dr. Beth Hoeltke, director of the Graduate School, from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, have authored Natural Burial: The Final Journey, a free downloadable six-unit Bible study available on Concordia Theology, the faculty blog.

“Our work on natural burial grew out of our mutual interests in worship, creation and Christian care, and the intersections between them,” Burreson said. “In the study, we address how God’s people should bury their dead in ways faithful to the biblical story.”

Natural Burial: The Final Journey explains how Christians should journey with the baptized body once death has occurred. It also provides insight into caring for the deceased, practicing natural burial techniques and understanding the Christian’s assurance of bodily resurrection.

“Our hope is that at the end, participants will find the practices of natural burial to be compelling because they faithfully witness to the God who creates and redeems our bodies,” Hoeltke said.

Each session begins with an introductory video. Also included in the study is a burial planning guide for participants to express their own desires in light of the practices discussed in the study. The study is self-contained, so the materials provided enable a pastor, church worker or a lay person to lead it.

About Concordia Seminary

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis provides Gospel-centered graduate-level theological education for pastors, missionaries, deaconesses, scholars and other leaders in the name of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). To learn more, visit csl.edu.