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God's Saving Purpose and Prayer for All the Departed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2011

James B. Gould
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Abstract

Throughout much of church history Christians have prayed for the dead. Historical, liturgical and pastoral contexts suggest that, while Anglicans may pray for the continual growth of the faithful departed, we have seldom prayed for advancement from purgatory or deliverance from hell. In this paper I defend all three, noting where my argument departs from and intersects with historic Anglican positions. I offer an outline of theology from the perspective of death, arguing that prayer for all the departed is one aspect of a tightly knit web of doctrines including theology proper, creation, salvation and consummation. Petitions for all the dead are not inconsequential. Instead, the final destiny of human persons raise the most basic of theological questions, matters which go to the center of God's purpose in creating spiritual beings and redeeming sinful humankind.

Keywords

Anglicanheavenhellprayer for deadpurgatoryuniversalism
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 2012 , pp. 183 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2012

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Footnotes

1.

James B. Gould is Instructor of Philosophy at McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA.

References

2. Polkinghorne, J., The God of Hope and the End of the World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002)Google Scholar

3. It might be wondered, for example, why St Paul did not comfort the Thessalonian believers by encouraging them to pray for the departed, about whose fate they worried – since the dead had died before the second advent of Christ which they believed was imminent. First, any such claim involves an argument from silence – which is always theologically hazardous. Second, there was simply no need for the Thessalonians to pray for the departed since the dead, St Paul reassures them, are not in any danger of missing Christ's return. They will be resurrected and, together with living believers, will share in his victory. See 1 Thess. 4.13–18.

4. T. Cranmer, ‘Forty-two Articles’, found at https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/dgehring/web/hist361/week5.html. ‘All men shall not be saved at the length. They also are worthy of condemnation who endeavor at this time to restore the dangerous opinion that all men, be they never so ungodly, shall at length be saved, when they have suffered pains for their sins a certain time appointed by God's justice.’

5. Ussher, J., ‘Tract 72: Archbishop Ussher on Prayers for the Dead’, found at http://anglicanhistory.org/tracts/tranct72.html, p. 20Google Scholar

6. Rowell, G., Hell and the Victorians (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Doctrine, Archbishops’ Commission on Christian, Prayer and the Departed (London: SPCK, 1971)Google Scholar

8. See, for example, the 1929 Scotland BCP, 1954 South Africa BCP, 1962 Canada BCP, 1966 New Zealand BCP, 1996 Nigeria BCP (all found at www.justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp), the Church of England Common Worship texts (found at www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts.aspx) and Anglican Church of Kenya, Our Modern Services (Nairobi: Uzima, 2002).

9. The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (New York: Seabury, 1979)Google Scholar

10. The 1982 Scottish Liturgy, Intercession Form 1, has a petition for all the dead: ‘For those who are separated from us by death; that theirs may be the kingdom which is unshakeable, we pray to you, O Lord’ (found at http://www.scotland.anglican.org/media/liturgy/liturgy/scottish_liturgy_1982_a4.pdf). The 1989 New Zealand Prayer Book (San Francisco: Harper, 1997, p. 483) contains a general petition for all the departed: ‘We remember those who have died. Father, into your hands we commend them.’

11. Borg, M. and Wright, N.T., The Meaning of Jesus (New York: Harper Collins, 1999)Google Scholar

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14. Archbishops’ Commission, Prayer and the Departed, p. 19Google Scholar

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17. Church Association, ‘Tract 126: Prayers for the Dead (Extract from Homily 19.3)’, found at: http://www.churchsociety.org/publications/catracts.htm. ‘Every mortal man dieth either in the state of salvation or damnation … the soul of man passing out of the body, goeth straightways either to heaven, or else to hell, whereof the one needeth no prayer, and the other is without redemption’.

18. Sanders, J., No Other Name (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992)Google Scholar

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19. Neuhaus, R., Death on a Friday Afternoon (New York: Basic Books, 2000)Google Scholar

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21. Bonda, One Purpose of God, p. 121Google Scholar

22. Wright, N.T., For All the Saints (New York: Morehouse, 2003)Google Scholar

23. Hotz, K. and Matthews, M., Shaping the Christian Life (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006)Google Scholar

24. Wright, For All Saints, p. 24.

25. Wright, For All Saints, p. 39; cf. Surprised by Hope, p. 172.

26. Ussher, ‘Tract 72’, pp. 10, 12, 25.

27. Prayer for the faithful departed assumes the doctrine of the communion of the saints, which teaches that God's people include all Christians, living and dead. There is a mystical and practical unity and interaction between God's people on earth and God's people in heaven, a bond that is not broken by death. We can be helped by the prayers of the saints and the dead can be helped by the prayers of the church. Just as intercessions aid in sanctifying the living, so PFD assists those in purgatory to grow in holy love.

28. Judisch, N., ‘Sanctification, Satisfaction, and the Purpose of Purgatory’, Faith and Philosophy 26 (2009), p. 170Google Scholar

  • M: Entering full union with God requires moral perfection

  • T: We become morally perfect in this life

  • D: We become morally perfect at the moment of death

  • A: We become morally perfect after death in the next life

    1. 1.

      1. M

    2. 2.

      2. M (T V D V A)

    3. 3.

      3. T V D V A Modus Ponens 2,1

    4. 4.

      4. ~T

    5. 5.

      5. ~D

    6. 6.

      6. A Disjunctive Syllogism 3,4,5

29. Hick, J., An Interpretation of Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2nd edn, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

J. Walls (Heaven: The Logic of Eternal Joy [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002], p. 50Google Scholar

30. Wright, For All Saints, pp. 29–32; cf. Surprised by Hope, p. 170.

31. Brown, D., ‘No Heaven without Purgatory’, Religious Studies 21 (1985), pp. 447–56Google Scholar

32. Barnard, J., ‘Purgatory and the Dilemma of Sanctification,’ Faith and Philosophy 24 (2007), pp. 311–30Google Scholar

Adams, M., ‘Divine Justice, Divine Love and the Life to Come’, Crux 13 (1976–77), p. 25Google Scholar

33. John Paul II, cited in Judisch, ‘Sanctification’, p. 167.

34. Wright, For All Saints, pp. 21–25 and Surprised by Hope, p. 169.

35. Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, p. 862. The brief catechism found in most prayer books dates from 1662 and covers the Apostles’ Creed, Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer and Sacraments; it does not mention prayer for the dead. The 1982 Revised catechism of the Church of England (found at http://frsimon.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/revised-catechism-of-the-church-of-england/), while discussing the Christian Hope, has no entry on prayer for the departed; the same is true of the Anglican Church of Kenya (see the Catechism in Our Modern Services). The catechism used by the Province of Southern Africa does discuss PFD in question 139: ‘Why do we remember the dead in prayer? We remember them, because we still hold them in our love and because we trust that in God's presence those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love, until they see him as he is’ (found at http://www.anglicancommunion.org/resources/acis/docs/cat1.cfm). The entry is identical to the Episcopal catechism, except – significantly – for the rewording of ‘praying’ for the dead as ‘remembering’ the dead.

36. Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, p. 253. The two traditional ECUSA collects for the departed are for grace to follow the example of all the saints now at rest and for remembrance of a specific individual – ‘that thou wilt receive him more and more into thy joyful service’ (p. 202). See also the Rite I burial prayers (p. 481): ‘Grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, he may go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom.’ Rite II burial prayers make no such reference. Most Anglican prayer books (for example, the Church of England, Anglican Church of Canada and New Zealand Prayer Book) use the wording: ‘work in them the good purpose of thy perfect will.’

37. Wright, For All Saints, pp. 51, 53.

38. Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, p. 872.

39. This section draws on Barnard, ‘Purgatory’.

40. Wright, For All Saints, p. 28.

41. Wright, For All Saints, p. 30.

42. Barnard, ‘Purgatory’, p. 326. Judisch, ‘Sanctification’, argues that the two models are identical when properly understood.

43. See Rowell, Hell and Victorians, pp. 37, 104.

44. O. Thomas's conclusion (Introduction to Theology [Cambridge: Greeno and Hadden, 1973], pp. 169–70)Google Scholar

Lewis, C.S., Letters to Malcolm (San Diego: Harcourt, 1963)Google Scholar

45. Laan, D. Vander, ‘The Sanctification Argument for Purgatory’, Faith and Philosophy 24 (2007), pp. 331–39Google Scholar

46. The church's prayers are not limited to believers but include ‘those who [in this life] do not yet believe, and … those who have lost their faith, that they may receive the light of the gospel’ (Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, p. 390). In the same way, I think, we should pray that the damned in hell may find and be found by God.

47. Adams, ‘Divine Justice, Divine Love and Life to Come’, p. 20. The argument can be formalized in logical notation as follows:

  • P: God's primary purpose in creating us is for relationship

  • L: God's love never ends

  • N: God never gives up on anyone

    1. 1.

      1. (P • L) N

    2. 2.

      2. P

    3. 3.

      3. L

    4. 4.

      4. P • L Conjunction 2,3

    5. 5.

      5. N Modus Ponens 1,4

48. M. Adams (‘The Problem of Hell’, in E. Stump (ed.), Reasoned Faith [Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993], p. 304)Google Scholar

49. F. Maurice, ‘The word “Eternal” and the punishment of the wicked’, found at http://Anglicanhistory.org/Maurice/jelf_letter1854.html, p. 12.

50. Talbott, T., ‘The Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment’, Faith and Philosophy 7 (1990), pp. 23–30Google Scholar

51. Maurice, ‘Word “Eternal” ’, pp. 17–18.

52. Talbott, ‘Everlasting Punishment’, pp. 21, 26; italics in original. The argument can be formalized in logical notation as follows:

  • L: God loves a person

  • C: God cannot act against a person's best interest

  • W: God withdraws grace

    1. 1.

      1. L A

    2. 2.

      2. L

    3. 3.

      3. A Modus Ponens 1,2

    4. 4.

      4. A W

    5. 5.

      5. ~W Modus Ponens 4,3

53. See Wright, For All Saints, pp. 42–46 and Surprised by Hope, pp. 178–83.

54. Wright, Surprised by Hope, p. 179.

55. T. Talbott, ‘A Pauline Interpretation of Divine Judgment’, in R. Parry and C. Partridge (eds.), Universal Salvation? The Current Debate (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003)Google Scholar

Buckareff, A. and Plug, A., ‘Escaping Hell: Divine Motivation and the Problem of Hell’, Religious Studies 41 (2005), pp. 39–54Google Scholar

Reitan, E., ‘Universalism and Autonomy’, Faith and Philosophy 18 (2001), pp. 222–40Google Scholar

Reitan, E., ‘A Guarantee of Universal Salvation?’, Faith and Philosophy 24 (2007), pp. 413–32Google Scholar

56. Tholen, J. Van, Where All Hope Lies (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003)Google Scholar

57. Pusey, cited in Liddon, ‘Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey’, p. 7.

58. Doctrine in the Church of England: The 1938 Report with a new Introduction by G. Lampe (London: SPCK, 1982), p. 218: ‘Doctrine requires us to repudiate all conceptions of the Judgment which represent God as abandoning the appeal of Love and falling back on the exercise of omnipotent sovereignty to punish those who have failed to respond to the invitation of the Gospel.’ While this report was important, it certainly did not end debate on salvation and hell (as seen in the disagreements between Robinson-Hick universalists and Stott-Wright separatists).

59. Seymour, C., A Theodicy of Hell (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

60. Davis, S., ‘Universalism, Hell and the Fate of the Ignorant’,Modern Theology 6 (1990), pp. 173–86Google Scholar

Walls, J., Hell: The Logic of Damnation (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992)Google Scholar

61. Chesterton, G.K.Mouw, cited in R., Distorted Truth (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989)Google Scholar

62. Seymour, Theodicy of Hell, p. 136.

63. Talbott, T., ‘Providence, Freedom and Human Destiny’, Religious Studies 26 (1990), p. 228Google Scholar

Walls and Talbott in Religious Studies 40 (2004), pp. 203–27Google Scholar

64. Hick, J., Death and Eternal Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1976)Google Scholar

65. The argument can be formalized in logical notation as follows:

  • S: God can save all persons without destroying their free will

  • L: None will be lost

    1. 1.

      1. S N

    2. 2.

      2. S

    3. 3.

      3. N Modus Ponens 1,2

Pusey and I agree on 1; we disagree on 2. As Thomas (Introduction to Theology, pp. 168–69) says: the issue of universal salvation ‘comes down to a decision as to whether we are to give more weight to human freedom to turn away from God's love or to the power of God's love to win all people freely to himself. Any victory of God which violates human freedom is not a victory of love but of coercion. But it is possible to conceive a love which is so powerful that ultimately no one will be able to restrain himself from free and grateful surrender.’ J. Hick (Evil and the God of Love [San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978], pp. 379–80) agrees: ‘it seems … impossible that the infinite resourcefulness of infinite love working in unlimited time should be eternally frustrated, and the creature reject its own good, presented to it in an endless range of ways.’ ‘The divine Therapist has perfect knowledge of every human heart, is infinitely wise in the healing of its ills, has unbounded love for the patient and unlimited time to devote to him’ (p. 345). If some are eternally damned, then God is either not completely good (and does not want these persons to be saved) or not completely powerful (and is unable to bring them to salvation – in which case God's purpose fails). Only universal salvation is consistent with a benevolent, omnipotent God.

66. See T. Talbot, ‘Christ Victorious’, pp. 23–24 and T. Johnson, ‘A Wideness in God's Mercy: Universalism in the Bible’, pp. 89–90, in Parry and Partridge, Universal Salvation. Also see Bonda, One Purpose of God, pp. 220–29.

67. Wright, For All Saints, p. 42. Neuhaus (Death on Friday Afternoon, pp. 44–45) agrees: ‘the gospel is sometimes presented as though God is running a desperate rescue mission, saving a few survivors from the shipwreck of what had been his hopes for creation … God's plan is not to rescue a religious elite from an otherwise botched creation but to restore all things in Christ’.

68. See Thomas (Introduction to Theology, p. 168): ‘Aquinas asserts that God's purposes can be fulfilled even though some are condemned. God in his love wills that all should be saved, but, because his love is just and holy, some may be condemned. But this amounts to a failure of God's love and a failure in the fulfillment of God's purposes for his creation.’

69. Wright, For All Saints, pp. 42–46 and Surprised by Hope, pp. 175–83. Annihilation is little better than eternal, conscious hell since in both cases a spiritual being loses the positive good of union with God.

70. Pusey, cited in Liddon, ‘Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey’, p. 6.

71. Wright, For All Saints, p. 44.

72. Van Tholen, Where All Hope Lies, p. 178.

73. Cockburn, Bruce, ‘Festival of Friends’, on the album In the Falling Dark (True North Productions, 1976)Google Scholar