Author:
Gould, James B.
ImprintCambridge, United Kingdom : the Lutterworth Press, 2017.
Descriptionix, 247 pages ; 23 cm
Note:Previously published in 2016 by Cascade Books.
Note:Setting a context: the Bible and prayer for the dead -- Recounting the past: prayer for the dead in the historical church -- Surveying the present: prayer for the dead in the contemporary church -- Envisioning the future: prayer for the dead in the coming church -- A pause -- God, causality, and the effectiveness of praying for the dead -- Human nature, personal identity, and prayer for the dead -- Time, eternity, and prayer for the dead -- Creative love Christianity: a theological framework for prayer for the dead -- Hope, expectation, and prayer for the dead.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-234) and indexes.
Note:Throughout history Christians have prayed for the dead--both for continual growth of the faithful and for their advancement from purgatory, though not for the deliverance of the unsaved from hell. This book defends all three kinds of prayer. It challenges Protestants, who seldom pray for the dead, to begin doing so--and Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, who pray only for the Christian dead, to include the unsaved as well. James Gould addresses the biblical credentials of prayer for the dead and provides a historical overview of such prayers from ancient Christianity to the current practice of the three main branches of the church. He also discusses the logical assumptions prayer for the dead requires--that prayer is effective, that the dead are conscious, and that the afterlife involves change--and lays out a theological framework for such prayers. Prayer for the departed raises the most basic of theological questions, matters that go to the center of God's purpose in creating spiritual beings and redeeming sinful humankind. The argument, while revisionary in some respects, is orthodox, ecumenical, and integrative, engaging a range of academic disciplines so as to be biblically accurate, historically informed, and philosophically reasoned.
