Rescue for the Dead

Download or read book Rescue for the Dead written by Jeffrey A. Trumbower and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-09-27 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity is a religion of salvation in which believers have always anticipated post-mortem bliss for the faithful and non-salvation for others. Here, Trumbower examines how and why death came to be perceived as such a firm boundary of salvation. Analyzing exceptions to this principle from ancient Christianity, he finds that the principle itself was slow to develop and not universally accepted in the Christian movement's first four hundred years. In fact, only in the West was this principle definitively articulated, due in large part to the work and influence of Augustine.