O Pyrgos ton Kataigidon

“Praying for the Dead” by R.J. Edmund Boggis

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I read this after reading “Speaking with the Dead in Early America” by Erik R. Seeman. Seeman's book starts with the Reformation - which suppressed the historic Catholic practice of praying for the dead - to the mid-nineteenth century and the rise of Seance Spiritualism. Seeman's book seems to document that the desire for humans to maintain some sense of contact - some presence with departed loved ones - is irrepressible.

“Praying for the Dead” by R.J. Edmund Boggis dovetails nicely with the Seeman book. Boggis was an Anglican priest who wrote this book in 1913 for the purpose of arguing that the Anglican church should return to the historic Catholic practice of praying for the dead, after it had been suppressed, but not outlawed, during the sixteenth century.

The book is an extended examination of texts concerning praying for the dead beginning with pre-Christian pagan texts and ending in the post-Reformation period. Boggis notes the universality of praying for the dead, which he conceives of as a part of “natural religion” flowing from certain conceptions: (a) the existence of a Supreme Being who is the ruler and maker of all; (b) man can indirectly influence his fellow-creatures by making an appeal to the Supreme Being; and (c) death does not involve extinction, but rather something survives. From these conceptions, many religions adhering to these convictions have recognized the efficacy of praying for the dead, including the Egyptians, Muslims, Zoroastrians, etc.

Boggis notes that there is not a lot of references to praying for the dead in the Jewish texts, but also not a lot of references to the state of the dead. Boggis theorizes that the focus of Judaism was the corporate state of Israel, rather than the future of the individual. However, by the time of Second Maccabees, it seems that sacrifices and prayers for the dead were unexceptional since Judas Maccabee's instruction to offer sacrifices for Jewish soldiers with pagan trinkets did not provoke criticism. Later, Judaism had tomb inscriptions asking for prayers for the dead, which is consistent with a belief in the efficacy of such prayers.

The New Testament presupposes the efficacy of such prayers. Jesus told parables and stories that presupposed that the dead were aware of the happenings in this world and having some interaction with the world. Hence, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still living, the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man presuppose interaction with the dead, the good thief was promised paradise, Jesus preached to the sinners in “Hell” after the crucifixion, John's Revelation depicts the martyrs under the altar aware that they have not been avenged, etc.

When Boggis gets to Eastern and Western Christendom there is no doubt that praying for the dead was a custom universally shared from the earliest times. Boggis mentions only one outlies on the consensus, Aerius of Sebasteia, who was quickly rebuked.

The consensus ended virtually over night with the Reformation. Luther did not rank ending the custom as high on his list of priorities and could have tolerated it. Calvin, however, was adamantly opposed to praying for the dead as useless and superstitious. Calvin was followed by a number of other Reformers. As of 1913, the Presbyterians officially forbade prayers to the dead.

Anglican reformers were also publicly and fairly uniformly against praying for the dead. However, they did not officially condemn this practice, which Boggis argues was the result of divine protection of the Holy Spirit and allowed for the reintroduction of the practice in 1913. Boggis argues that the Anglican Reformers actually condemned the practice of the Scholastics, rather than the Christian practice of praying for the dead and that they failed to distinguish between praying for the dead - which might be to hasten the Second Coming or promote the joy of those in heaven - from the “scholastic” notion of purgatory with its idea of punishment and suffering.

Maybe so, but Boggis also notes that the traditional Christian belief was that there was a “third place” which was not Heaven or Hell, which made the purpose of praying for the dead so that the dead could leave the third place and enter Heaven. Call it what you will, but it still sounds like purgatory.

In any event, it appears that Boggis has made his case. He feels that having requiem masses, in essence, will restore Anglicanism to its Catholic roots. He also thinks that this practice is more in keeping with natural feelings. In that regard, he writes:

“There is a passage in the Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson which informs us that he obeyed the natural promptings of his affection, and tentatively offered his intercession for his wife twelve months after her decease. It occurs in his “prayers and Meditations” and runs as follows: – “March 28, 1753. I kept this day as the anniversary of my Tetty's death, with prayer and tears in the morning. In the evening, I prayed for her conditionally, if it were lawful.”

And this would seem to bring us back to our beginning. It does seem to be a precept of natural religion that the living wants and needs to retain involvement with the beloved deceased. The suppression of that desire can have only a limited and temporary success.