Rescue for the Dead

Abstract

Abstract This book investigates a variety of traditions in early Christianity in which various Christians sought to secure salvation after death for non‐Christians. Sometimes the dead would appear in dreams to request prayer for the dead; sometimes soon‐to‐be martyrs were thought to have special powers to rescue even the non‐Christian dead. Some Christians practiced a vicarious baptism for the dead. Others imagined Christ offering salvation to the dead during the harrowing of hell (his descent to the realm of the dead). Some Christians went so far as to posit an ultimate universal salvation for everyone who had ever lived. The book culminates with a study of Augustine, who strove to limit these practices and beliefs to prayer for the Christian dead with light sins only. In this process, western notions of purgatory began to develop as a place where baptized Christians could be purified for eternal life with God.

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