Hope Of Eternal Life Research Articles

The theological dimension of selected Polish Easter songs

The theology of Polish Easter hymns focuses on the mystery of Christ’s resurrection and is directed towards the eschatological dimension of human existence. Through the victory of the Son of God over sin, death and Satan, man has an open gate to eternal life. Easter songs are rooted in the biblical account of the Lord’s resurrection and are a form of prayer expressed both during and outside the liturgy, and should therefore bring the faithful closer to God. The oldest hymns, dating back to the 14th century, were composed throughout the centuries of the existence of the Polish nation and state, and often referred to the historical and social situation of Poles, especially during the partitions. However, their content and melody have always expressed the essence of man’s faith in the resurrection of Christ and the hope of eternal life.

Kebangkitan Orang Mati (Daniel 12:1-4)

In the Christian context, the resurrection of the dead is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ after the crucifixion, which forms the basis of the Christian faith that all people will experience resurrection at the end of time to face the final judgment. In the Old Testament, death is understood as the separation between body and spirit. After we die, our bodies will decompose and become soil again while the spirit will leave our bodies for the afterlife, also known as Sheol. There is also a belief in the resurrection of the dead, which is the physical return of the body from the dead. This belief is reflected in books such as Daniel and Isaiah, which state that at the end of time, God will raise the dead to eternal life or eternal punishment. This concept of resurrection affirms the belief in divine justice and restoration, where each person will receive reward or punishment according to their deeds. In Christian theology, the resurrection of the dead provides hope for eternal life as well as complete redemption, and simultaneously reminds the faithful of the importance of living righteously and faithfully to God's teachings.

Makna Kebahagiaan Menurut Filsafat Kristen : Meraih Kebahagiaan Abadi Dalam Tuhan

In Christian philosophy, the concept of happiness is often associated with the close relationship between humans and God. Eternal happiness is seen as the highest goal that can be achieved by being loyal to God, experiencing spiritual healing and living according to the principles of the Christian religion. This article explains that happiness in a Christian context includes inner peace, gratitude and the hope of eternal life with God. This analysis emphasizes the importance of faith, prayer and devotion to others to achieve eternal happiness. In addition, this article also emphasizes that true happiness is not only based on material achievements or physical pleasures, but rather on a spiritual connection with God and the fulfillment of a spiritual calling. Thus, the meaning of happiness in Christian philosophy refers to seeking and experiencing eternal happiness in the presence and love of God.

Some Eschatological Perspectives on the Loss of Biodiversity and Extinction

Abstract This article explores the loss of biodiversity and species extinction from the perspective of Christian eschatology and, more specifically, the hope for eternal life. A thought experiment on the coexistence of various hominid and hominin species is entertained in order to gain some clarity on the nature of the problems posed by extinction. The question is then raised whether any of the traditional eschatological symbols of the reign of God, a final judgment, the resurrection of the dead, or eternal life can be retrieved to address the problems posed by extinction. It is argued that each of these symbols poses serious difficulties in this regard while there is an apparent contradiction embedded in the notion of eternal life. This is not resolved through notions of ‘objective immortality,’ as this by itself eternalizes the injustices of history. With Joseph Sittler, it is argued that only some notion of cosmic redemption can suffice, but how this is to be imagined remains elusive.

Book Review: Exploring the New Testament Vol.1 Gospels and Acts

New Testament is a collection of writings that provide an important historical source about the birth of Jesus, His teachings, and, how the 'Good News' spread through the Apostles after Jesus's death. Wenham and, Walton took their portion of the vast land to provide important reading for anyone who wished to study the New Testament in terms of historical, theological, narrative interpretation and, guidance in learning other things from the various writings in the New Testament. Volume 1 discusses the Four Gospels and, Acts from the historical context at the birth of Jesus, the life of the early church and, the Roman colonial era that provides its own effectiveness when interpreting the New Testament. Wenham and Walton use simple and, practical writing patterns but it is in that simplicity that becomes even more delicious when reading them. The way of speaking is used to provide beauty for readers of the Gospels and, Acts in the present so as to provide good spiritual interaction living life as a people of Christ. The Christian's hope of eternal life in Christ was also successfully explored by Wenham and Walton, as two of the most prominent writers, teachers and, pastors in the world today.

Хорал «Es ist genug»: от И. С. Баха до Э. Денисова

The article analyzes a number of works written in the chorale «Es ist genug». The tune has received symbolic meaning in the musical culture of different eras — from the Baroque to the present day. Each composer, while preserving the original meaning of this funeral chant, interpreted it differently, which was also facilitated by the selected genres and stylistic specifics of the works. Many composers turned to the tune. Used by Bach in cantata No. 60 chorale «Es ist genug» he set a certain semantic vector (fear of death and hope for eternal life), continued by R. Wagner and received a love-romantic interpretation in the vocal cycle; tragic — in the violin concerto by A. Berg, the concept of overcoming the fear of death — in Variations on the chorale of E. Denisova. Moving along the routes of history, the chant each time revealed new meanings, continuing its way to infinity.

The Sufferings of the Biblical Job as an Icon of Postmodernity: The ‘loneliness’ of God and the human being in a consumerist paradise

This article explores ways in which the attitudes of the biblical Job may enrich postmodernist philosophy by addressing some of its inherent problems. The discussion focuses in particular on the biblical Book of Job that can serve as an example of confronting suffering as a dramatic implication of human life that denies the sense of happiness. In an attempt to suppress this fear, the postmodern human contests, in various ways, the truth of their ontic frailty and the fragility of their constructed “happiness”. The questions that the biblical Job posed to God with a distinct air of resentment and regret seem at first sight to be meaningless as they are thrown into the void of a terrifying Universe. The critique offered here comes out of a Christian philosophical and theological base which posits that belief in the sacrum, transcendence, God and the hope of eternal life are key elements in a meaning system that fosters mental health and human happiness. In the postmodern system of meaning, individuals may no longer question the existence of God for the sake of human freedom, nor seek evidence of God’s non-existence, but simply live as if God does not exist. From a Christian perspective, it appears that non-belief in a transcendent spiritual dimension can inline people in postmodern society to feel that they live in an atmosphere of existential anxiety. Similarly, a Christian critique would consider that it is the postmodernist view of fluidity in all aspects of human life that leads to uncertainty and suffering, a causal consequence that people may not advert to. In this way, confronted with many postmodern phenomena, they may unknowingly live in a world of illusion. The Christian critique would also see it is as necessary and important to address constructively the challenges raised by cultural postmodernity. For this reason, the article will reflect on the realism of human suffering, the forgetting and rejection of God, as well as transcendence.

Human rationality in Vito Mancuso’s liberal Catholic theology augmenting the notions of Van Huyssteen’s ‘postfoundational transversality’ and McGrath’s ‘rational consilience’

The cue for this article is human rationality being the cornerstone in Wentzel van Huyssteen’s thinking, and Alister McGrath’s scepsis about the feasibility of a postfoundational transversality in particular. This article does not intend to juxtapose Van Huyssteen’s postfoundational rationality to McGrath’s enterprise of a ‘rational consilience’ but contends that a transversal approach to rationality engages social ramifications as well. Subsequently, a liberal Catholic theologian’s take on rationality is presented here as such an offering from the social sciences contributes to a bricolage of unintegrated pieces of knowledge and discernments emerging from various disciplinary or social viewpoints on reality. Vito Mancuso continues to focus on human rationality which, in his view, provides humanity with the hope of eternal life or life from the perspective of eternity. Such a conviction is in line with his horizontal understanding of human rationality, in addition to the human being’s first challenge to understanding reality.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The reason d’être of this article is to call for a discussion partner to the notion of human rationality from the social sciences (indicated as one of the neglected fields in the theology and science discourse). Vito Mancuso, for one, brings the pragmatic and transformative (even revolutionary) dimension to the table. A transversal approach to rationality must integrate such social practices as well.

INSCRIPȚIILE CREȘTINE TIMPURII, LATINEȘTI ȘI GRECEȘTI – DOVEZI INCONTESTABILE ALE PRACTICII BOTEZĂRII COPIILOR MICI (I)

In this article I intend to highlight the fact that ancient Christian inscriptions can help us just as much as the biblical and patristic evidence in revealing undeniable proof of the practice of baptism of babies and newborns respectively in the first centuries of the primary Church. We can find inscriptions that can be identified as being Christian since the end of the second century but it is only starting with the third century that the number of dated inscriptions became significant. Almost all early Christian inscriptions are epitaphs. After having presented some generalities about catacombs and the way that Christians were buried in the second and third centuries, I have translated from Latin and from Greek a series of inscriptions and I have annotated on them. The oldest epitaphs stand out due to their precision and their simplicity. Starting with the end of the second century the number of epitaphs has increased. It is a well-known fact that the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, the entrance and initiation in Christianity has been regarded as a mystery whose significance was not to be revealed to pagans or catechumens. Christians would not reveal the Holy Sacraments to those who hadn’t been baptised in order for them not to be desecrated. For this reason, certain formulae have been used to make what was written on those inscriptions intelligible only to those initiated into Christianity. Thus, Christian symbols such as the fish that reminds us of Jesus, the anchor for hope, the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit and pure soul, the XP monogram, which was very popular in the fourth century, for Christ are to be noticed. The duration of life was engraved, years, months, days and sometimes information about Roman consuls who were leaders during those times. By reading them, we notice that the first Christians did not draw attention upon themselves and their achievements but upon God, upon the faith in Jesus Christ, and upon the hope for eternal life, heavenly peace, prayer for those who had been called by God and so on, this fact revealing their spiritual preoccupations and the fact that their most valuable possession was their faith in God and the prospect of life in Heaven.

That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation

The author is widely regarded as one of today’s leading theological thinkers. This book glows with a kind of erudition and intellectual sophistication for readers with enough patience to bore through its often gnarly locutions. But the case it sets forth is hardly novel, nor will it be compelling for readers who privilege the Bible’s consistent representation of God, humans, eternal life, and everlasting judgment over the opinion of many theologians in recent generations that a loving God and an eternal hell are logically incompatible.The story is wearingly familiar, though from a pastoral viewpoint heart wrenching. As a youth, David Bentley Hart became skeptical toward the dominant historic Christian understanding of the Bible’s teaching on heaven and hell. He came, almost immediately it seems, to doubt that it is morally permissible “to love an omnipotent and omniscient God who has elected to create a reality in which everlasting torture is a possible final destiny for any of his creatures” (p. 13). This book is an extension of that doubt, phrased as a brave (and not always accurate) assertion that from the beginning Christian universalists were dominant in the church, and that those who are not universalists today are rejecting both the Bible’s teaching and the necessary conclusions of logic.The Bible’s true teaching on this subject, in Hart’s reading, is found in texts isolated from their immediate and whole-Bible contexts, such as 1 Tim 2:3–4 (“Our savior God … intends that all human being shall be saved and come to a full knowledge of the truth,” quoted on the back of the dedication page). Or it is found by negating Jesus’s frequent and harrowing pronouncements on the subject, often by urbane trivialization: “I am quite certain that, while Christ employed all sorts of imagery regarding final judgment, and spoke of a discrimination between the righteous and the wicked, and spoke also of the dire consequences for the latter of their actions in this life, none of it should be received as anything other than an intentionally heterogenous phantasmagory, meant as much to disorient as to instruct” (p. 119, emphasis added). Many Christians affirm the perspicuity of Scripture and regard Jesus as the consummate truth teller. Here, Hart presents him as intentional deceiver. Of course the reader has Hart to supply the antidote for Jesus’s (or at least the Gospel writers’) intentional “heterogenous phantasmagory.” Since the physical features of a mythic world with a real heaven and real hell have disappeared for Hart, he opines that “perhaps it is past time that we considered whether the spiritual structure of that vanished cosmos, at least in some its more garish details, could disappear as well without any great damage to our religious imaginations” (p. 207).For my money, our religious imagination is less important than the testimony of Scripture, affirmed by a vast array of interpreters from ancient times down to the thousands of martyrs annually at present, who lay down their lives in the sure hope of eternal life and with the deep consolation that God’s (and therefore the faithful martyrs’) enemies will not escape their just end. Hart’s world seems far removed from the sweat and the terror but also the brave faith of Christian saints facing Boko Haram, Hindu nationalists, Shiite militias, and the like. His sweeping solipsistic conclusion (pp. 208–9) that there will be eternal punishment for no one stands in stark contrast to majority Christian conviction through the centuries, and proudly so: Hart’s “conscience must not abide by the rule of the majority … the authority of a dominant tradition or of a reigning opinion has no weight whatever. And my conscience forbids assent to a picture of reality that I regard as morally corrupt, contrary to justice, perverse, inexcusably cruel, deeply irrational, and essentially wicked” (p. 208).Readers who concede Hart’s animating premises, which are evident from the start, may find his arguments persuasive. For a very different reading of Hart’s universalist outlook, one more tethered to church-historical fact and confessional logic and therefore supportive of a hermeneutic more likely to grant Scripture the say it deserves in this discussion, I recommend the terse essay accessible by searching for “Michael McClymond, opiate of the theologians” on Google.

Attitudes regarding euthanasia among Wroclaw university students surveyed in 2011–2012

IntroductionThe research was conducted to measure the views held by students towards euthanasia.MethodsThe opinions were recorded by using a survey with 12 statements and 5-grade Likert scale responses. The research involved 376 students: 168 students of physiotherapy and 103 students of nursing and midwifery from the Wroclaw Medical University, and 105 pedagogy students from the University of Lower Silesia.ResultsMost respondents considered euthanasia (65%) as an act of killing. The majority of students (around 90% from both universities) believed that the subject of death should not be removed from everyday life and that human death differed from that of an animal. Moreover, 63% considered death sacred and related it with hope for eternal life, although women were more willing to take part in hospice work than men.ConclusionsIn Poland, medical and education studies help develop attitudes of life protection from start to finish. The students of nursing and midwifery and of physiotherapy presented greater respect for life than students of education.

Coping with death and awareness of mortality in patients and their relatives

The aim of our study was to analyze the attitudes of people – patients and their relatives in proximity of death and dying. End-stage of human life is often associated with changes in the scale of values and needs of the individual. Particular attention was paid to the needs and values that are associated with recognition of limitations concerning to earthly life, but also with the hope of eternal life. Generally, people think that the feelings and coping with death and dying are same in patients and their relatives. The truth is that coping with death and mortality is individual to each person. The problems related to the dying should be coped with by all: dying patients, their relatives and friends. Dying is not letting cold those who are in the presence of dying. In our study we used Acceptation of Dying and Coping with Mortality Questionnaire – 20 Items (ADCMQ20). Research sample consisted of 275 respondents: 95 dying patients and 180 their relatives. All data were processed by SPSS 24 statistical program.

Biblical hermeneutics as the structuralist of the poetics of "The Word of Law and Grace" of Ilarion

The article states that, for the purpose of interpreting the Biblical topos of the Law and Grace, Hilarion refers to the genre of the word. Hilarion takes first place in the title, and then in the text of the work God brings out wisdom. By law, he believes the Old Testament, which has already fulfilled its task, and Grace - the New Testament, which outlines the existence of man, his relationship with God, gives hope for eternal life. The subject of the "Word" breaks the sermon into four fragments. In the first of them, we notice the allegorical meaning of reading the Scriptures in relation to the history of mankind. The second part is devoted to the interpretation of the image of Jesus Christ, which appears as a synthesis of God and human nature. The third fragment depicts events beyond the boundary of the Bible. It is devoted to the baptism of Rus. In the fourth fragment Prince Volodymyr is glorified. Following the best traditions of Byzantine oratory prose, the author of the Word simply pours his text into quotations from the Bible and adds to them a predominantly allegorical interpretation, emphasizing that the work is not intended for proclamation, but for reading, which enabled the author to interpret the Scriptures and in the literal, and in allegorical sense. The advantage of the New Testament over the Old Testament is embodied by the author in the images of the free wife of Abraham Sarah - Grace and his servant Hagar - Law. Laconic retelling of God-inspired text, Hilarion interprets the old-czarist images, as those that represent the new covenants at the level of allusions, presented them in the form of additional parallel antithesis. The same anti-colored color is also depicted by the images of their children. Isaac was born from a free woman, which means that he represents freedom, Ishmael is from a slave, hence his image symbolizes slavery. He who receives Grace receives goodness, love, becomes the son of God, and begins to live a new life in the Holy Spirit through which the believer is through. The overcoming of the Law and the perception of Grace means, according to Hilarion, the acquisition of spiritual freedom.

Editorial: „Special Focus on Holm Tetens’s ‚Thinking God‘ (‚Gott denken‘)“

SummaryIn Germany, Holm Tetens is an influential analytic philosopher of science, mind, and logic. For many years he had been arguing within the widely accepted framework of naturalism and atheism. It came, to put it mildly, as a surprise to the entire philosophical community in Germany when he published a book defending theism in 2015. In this book “Thinking God” he claims that physicalism is an incomplete account of reality, because the mental and ideal realm cannot be reduced to the physical realm. As an alternative, he develops a version of theistic idealism which stands in the tradition of “panentheism”. Human subjectivity is fully embedded into the all-encompassing divine subjectivity. In dealing with the problem of theodicy, he then argues that the hope for eternal life and salvation by a supremely good being makes life more meaningful, esp. because it offers a prospect for justice to the countless victims of history. To Tetens, the worldview of naturalism and the worldview of theistic idealism are on the one hand both equally rational and defensible. On the other hand, both cannot be defeated by knock-down arguments. In closing, he urges his peers in philosophy to take the question of God seriously again. Shortly after the publication of the book, the Catholic Academy of Bavaria and the Munich School of Philosophy jointly organized an international master class on Tetens’s views which was taught by himself. The papers published in this issue grew out of this master class. For each paper by a young scholar there is also a reply by Tetens. The following editorial addresses specifically the German-speaking audience. It was thus not translated into English. All original papers discussing Tetens’s views and his replies to these, however, were written in English for the sake of reaching a larger worldwide readership.

Henry V and Mark 9:23

According to Naseeb Shaheen, of the 120 allusions to Mark’s gospel in Shakespeare’s plays only four appear in Henry V.1 However, Shaheen does not record that King Henry also alludes to Mark’s gospel just after his St Crispin’s Day speech before the Battle of Agincourt. Henry’s speech emboldens his men by appealing not only to their patriotism and sense of brotherhood but also to their mental preparedness. Henry asserts that his honour of fighting on this day is such that he would not have ‘one man more … share from me / For the best hope I have’, or in Bevington’s gloss, this is not a day he ‘would exchange for my hope of eternal life’ (IV.iii.33 n).2 Henry’s hope of victory is equally balanced by his rejection of fear: ‘We would not die in that man’s company / That fears his fellowship to die with us’ (IV.iv.38–39). The king then demonstrates the assuredness he has just urged on his men when Salisbury informs him that ‘The French are bravely in their battles set, / And will with all expedience charge on us.’ Henry confidently replies, ‘All things are ready if our minds be so’ (IV.iii.69–71), a statement that does not appear in the chronicles of Hall and Holinshed.

Dobra doczesne a nadzieja życia wiecznego z perspektywy Ojców Kościoła

The question about the sense of life was not formulated by Church Fathers directly. Despite that, their texts indicate the elements which give value for human life and are the protection against death. Material world and social structures can’t satisfy man because inside his heart there is an unquenchable desire. In fact, ac­cording to the Church Fathers, man longs for the life with God in eternity. That de­sire is satisfied by hope which is based on the Christian faith. That’s the Christian hope of eternal life that makes the temporal life bearable and valuable. This is not only the Revelation teaching but also the result of rational calculation. Man not always adequately recognizes the essence of his desires and therefore it is the Church and its shepherds task to correctly allocate the hope because hope should later organize the whole human life.

ON HUMAN FINITUDE AND ETERNAL LIFE

There is an emerging consensus in contemporary theology that human finitude should be affirmed and that attempts to overcome the limitations of mortality, transience and finite human knowledge and power should be resisted. Nevertheless, the Christian tradition has maintained its hope for eternal life in the presence of God. The question which this essay therefore addresses is which aspects of human finitude (if any) will be overcome if the hope for eternal life is affirmed. Section two provides a brief overview of theological debates on human finitude. Section three then offers a brief introduction to theological discourse on time and eternity. In section four the contributions to theological reflection on eternity from German theologians such as Karl Barth, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jürgen Moltmann and Eberhard Jüngel are discussed. This discussion on eschatological assessment of human finitude remains inconclusive though. The question that requires further attention is: In what ways will human finitude be affirmed and in what ways (if any) will human finitude be transcended in and through eternal life.

Managing severe anemia when the patient is a Jehovahʼs Witness: Explaining to patients who cannot accept major blood fractions how available therapies are produced can help them decide which therapies do not violate their religious beliefs.

Managing severe anemia when the patient is a Jehovahʼs Witness: Explaining to patients who cannot accept major blood fractions how available therapies are produced can help them decide which therapies do not violate their religious beliefs.

A Lutheran Reflection on The One Mediator, The Saints, and Mary1 in Relation to the Question: How Do Lutherans Understand Prayer for Other People?2

Abstract: In this article, the author offers a critical, appreciative appraisal of The One Mediator, The Saints, and Mary (1992), which was the publication that emerged from the eighth round of the U.S. Lutheran‐Catholic Dialogue. Writing from a Lutheran perspective and using the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ, October 31, 1999) as a critical hermeneutical lens, the author points to Luther's theological conviction concerning how Mary—the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ—and departed saints are to be regarded. Luther's emphasis on Christ the only Mediator was highlighted. Reflection on this text was done in light of the theme of the dialogue's eleventh round, “The Hope of Eternal Life.” Prayer is always in and through Jesus Christ.

The Value of Offering Sacrifice for the Dead in the Thought of the Fathers of the Church

The Value of Offering Sacrifice for the Dead in the Thought of the Fathers of the Church Christian D. Washburn The practice of offering private prayers and the sacrifice of the Mass for the dead was a controversial topic in the sixteenth century and continues to be an important ecumenical question. Both Lutheran and Reformed theologians of the sixteenth century, for example, admitted the antiquity of the practice but denied that it had an apostolic foundation.1 Moreover, these theologians denied that the purpose of 1 Philipp Melanchthon states: “We know the ancients spoke of prayer for the dead.” Apology of the Augsburg Confession, 24:94, 24:69, in The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, trans. Charles Arand et al. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2000) 275, 269. Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586) holds that prayers for the dead were unknown in the time of the apostles and were introduced “little by little . . . into the church” but does not appear to deny that the prayers for the dead were the universal practice of the Christians in the postapostolic period. Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, vol. 3, trans. Fred Kramer (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971-1986) 262-263. Calvin’s judgment is considerably more severe, “When my adversaries , therefore, raise against me the objection that prayers for the dead have been a custom for thirteen hundred years, ask them, in turn, by what word of God, by what revelation, by what example, is this done?” Again, “But the observance of it in the Church is of the highest antiquity. . . . I admit that the fathers themselves were also carried off into error. For heedless credulity commonly deprives men’s minds of judgment.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 20, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960) 3.5.10, vol. 1, pp. 681, 682. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.5.10, vol. 1, pp. 682, 683. Protestant theologians offered various explanations for how this practice entered the Church. Chemnitz, for example, argues that prayers for the dead were derived “from a certain natural disposition of the human mind,” such as “human affection,” or from a desire to preserve something of the good within pagan culture, but modified “in the direction of Christian piety.” Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, vol. 3, 262-263. Calvin asserts that prayers for the dead entered into Christian thought not only on account of “public custom,” and “common ignorance,” but Christians also did it “lest they should seem to have cast Antiphon 16.3 (2012): 154-178 155 The Value of Offering Sacrifice for the Dead these prayers was to assist the dead, arguing instead that they were conducted merely for the benefit of the living.2 On the other hand, the Council of Trent quite clearly insisted that prayers for the dead were derived from “Holy Scripture” and the “ancient tradition of the fathers,” and further claimed that the poor souls in Purgatory “are aided by the suffrages of the faithful, and principally the acceptable sacrifice of the altar,” so that “they might be liberated from the fire of purgatory.”3 This article seeks to examine the teaching of the Fathers of the Church on the purpose of offering prayers and sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of the Mass, for the dead. This article will include an examination of different aspects of this question including: those for whom prayers and sacrifice can be offered, the purpose of praying and sacrificing for the dead, the way in which these prayers and sacrifices assist, and finally the way that different types of sacrifices help the dead. away all concern for them.” Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.5.10, vol. 1, pp. 682, 683. For a recent ecumenical approach see The Hope of Eternal Life: Common Statement of the Eleventh Round of the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue, ed. Lowell G. Almen and Richard J. Sklba (Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2011). 2 Chemnitz’s explanation: “For there can be many other reasons and far other purposes for such prayer...