ABSTRACT We Believe in the Communion of Saints: A Proposed Protestant Reclamation of the Doctrine Jonathan Scott Speegle Mentor: Bob Patterson, Ph.D. The corrective theology of the Reformation broke the historic union, at least in Europe, among all members of the kingdom of God. Perhaps the most serious Protestant loss—one still not satisfactorily recovered—is the doctrine of the communion between pilgrims and saints, especially when we remember that the Reformation declared all Christians to be saints, not just those who had been officially beatified and canonized. So, while the theology of the Church’s true treasury may have been corrected, Protestant Christians remain bereft of a satisfactory explication of their creedal claim that “we believe in the Communion of Saints” Hence there is a Protestant need for a recovered doctrine of the Communion of Saints as including the dead no less than the living. This proposed reclamation of the doctrine of the Communion of Saints living and dead for Protestant Christianity will be attempted in this dissertation in three parts. Part one will survey the historical development of the doctrine and outline the reasons for its ultimate rejection. Part two will construct a biblically grounded eschatological context through which we can understand, in part, the life beyond. Part three will explore the Church’s understanding of the various interactions between believers on earth and those in heaven. The story of Augustine’s mother Monica’s internment will introduce the Communion of Saints as a spiritual bond which knits together the faithful in this world and the saints beyond in a mystical organic and historic unity within which there exists a mutuality of faith, prayer, and love that is best and most fully expressed in the Eucharistic feast. Copyright © 2006 by Jonathan Scott Speegle All rights reserved. CONTENTS PREFACE.....................................................................................................................xi Thesis Statement....................................................................................................xv DEDICATION............................................................................................................xvi EPIGRAPH................................................................................................................xvii PART ONE: ENVISIONING A COMMUNION LOST CHAPTER ONE. Introduction .....................................................................................2 Augustine Inters his Mother and Plants the Seeds of the Reformation...................2 The Goal of both Earthly and Heavenly Life ..........................................................7 The Sacramental Life ..............................................................................................9 Baptism.............................................................................................................13 The Lord’s Supper............................................................................................15 Penance ............................................................................................................17 Contrition .........................................................................................................21 Confession ........................................................................................................22 Satisfaction.......................................................................................................23 Satisfaction as a Regimen for Spiritual Health................................................24 Satisfaction as a Remedy for Guilt...................................................................26 Temporal Punishment ......................................................................................29 Indulgences............................................................................................................30 The Mathematizing of Penance........................................................................32 The Treasury of the Church .............................................................................34 iii Indulgences Extended to Those in Purgatory ..................................................36 The Abuses of Indulgences ...............................................................................38 Luther’s Theological Critique of Indulgences .................................................41 CHAPTER TWO. The Protestant Rejection of the Catholic/Orthodox Understanding of the Communion of Saints and its Results............................45 The Phrase and Its Meaning .................................................................................45 A Description of the Church.............................................................................45 A Participation in Holy Things ........................................................................46 A Communion with the Saints in Heaven.........................................................46 The Creedal Phrase in the Theology of the Reformers .........................................47 The Reformers Dismember the Body................................................................50 The Historic Reasons for the Reformer’s Rejections .......................................51 Attempts to Reform Purgatory..........................................................................58 The Impetus to Curb Abuses Resultsin the Rejection of Related Doctrines and Practices...............................................................62 PART TWO: ENVISIONING A CREEDAL ESCHATOLOGY CHAPTER THREE. What Happens When We Die? ................................................68 CHAPTER FOUR. We Believe in . the Life Everlasting.......................................71 The Reality of Death..............................................................................................71 The Triumph of Life...............................................................................................75 The Witness of the Resurrection in the Lord’s Supper.....................................76 What and Where is Heaven? ................................................................................77 Heaven as the Divine Moment of Success .......................................................... in God’s Self-communication to Creation ....................................................81 What is Between Death and Eternal Life? ...........................................................82 iv Soul Sleep ........................................................................................................83 Immediate Reward of either Bliss or Torment ................................................86 Purgatory ........................................................................................................89 History of the Concept of Purgatory ...............................................................92 Orthodox Toll Houses .....................................................................................95 Purgatory as Hospital not Prison ...................................................................97 Soul Building .................................................................................................103 Purgatory for Protestants ...................................................................................106 Death Itself as Purgatory ..............................................................................113 Purgatory as the Fire of Christ’s Holy Spirit ...............................................115 Summary .............................................................................................................117 CHAPTER FIVE: We Believe in . the Resurrection of the Body ........................118 Dualism ..............................................................................................................120 Monism ..........................................................................................................123 Holistic Dualism ............................................................................................125 Summary ........................................................................................................129 The Created Soul and the Resurrected Body .....................................................129 The Moral Significance of the Body ...................................................................133 Summary .............................................................................................................134 CHAPTER SIX. We Believe in . the Forgiveness of Sins ...................................135 “He Shall Come to Judge the Living and the Dead” .........................................138 The Three-fold Coming of Christ ..................................................................139 The Final Coming of Christ ..........................................................................139 v What Kind of Judge? ..........................................................................................142 Judgment as Revelation .................................................................................143 The Pilgrims’ Progress .................................................................................147 What is Hell? ......................................................................................................152 Jesus . “descended into hell.” ...................................................................158 Making Captivity