Practicing Prayer for the Dead

Throughout history Christians have prayed for the dead. This book 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. Gould discusses the meaning of prayer for final consummation of all things, growth of the blessed in heaven, purification of the imperfect in purgatory, and salvation of the unsaved in hell--identifying the necessary conception of the afterlife required by each particular prayer. He also reflects on the spiritual value of prayer for the departed--how it enhances faith, builds hope, and sharpens discipleship--and provides some sample prayers for public liturgy and private devotion. In essence, Practicing Prayer for the Dead offers 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. 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.

James B. Gould teaches in the Department of Philosophy at McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, Illinois, and serves on the ethics committees of several healthcare organizations.