HistoricalChristian.Faith

Martin Luther on purgatory and prayer for the dead

Dates: c. 1544 (the Church Postil; cf. the 1531 Apology) · Wikipedia
Summary: Martin Luther (1483–1546), the Wittenberg reformer, broke decisively with purgatory and with the system of endowed Masses, vigils, and anniversary offerings for the dead built upon it — yet he did not forbid simple prayer for the departed. In his Church Postil sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity (on Dives and Lazarus) he reasons that, since God has neither commanded nor forbidden such prayer and has left the state of departed souls hidden from us, a Christian may pray once or twice for the dead "in uncertainty" and then commend them to God — but must not turn it into the endless, merit-earning machinery Rome had made of it. The Lutheran confession he endorsed, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Melanchthon, 1531), states the same line: "the ancients speak of prayer for the dead, which we do not prohibit," while rejecting the propitiatory Mass for the dead.

Claims & evidence

Prayer for the dead is neither commanded nor forbidden — so no one sins either way

We have no command from God to pray for the dead; therefore no one sins by not praying for them.

— Church Postil, sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity (on Luke 16:19–31, Dives and Lazarus), §28, godwithuslc.org. Luther's premise is his settled rule that what God has neither bidden nor forbidden cannot be a matter of sin. This cuts both ways: it removes any obligation to pray for the dead (and so dismantles the duty Rome had attached to endowed Masses) while leaving the practice itself permissible.

Pray "in uncertainty," once or twice, then commend them to God

let it rest in uncertainty and speak thus: Dear God, if the departed souls be in a state that they may yet be helped, then I pray that thou wouldst be gracious.

— Church Postil, First Sunday after Trinity, §29, godwithuslc.org. Because the condition of the departed is hidden, Luther frames the prayer conditionally — if they can yet be helped — and caps it sharply: "when you have thus prayed once or twice, then let it be sufficient and commend them unto God." The repetition-without-end of vigils and anniversary Masses he condemns as a mistrust of God that "is nothing but blasphemy" — the practice is retained only in this chastened, faith-resting form.

Confessional corroboration: the ancients prayed for the dead, "which we do not prohibit"

Now, as regards the adversaries' citing the Fathers concerning the offering for the dead, we know that the ancients speak of prayer for the dead, which we do not prohibit; but we disapprove of the application ex opere operato of the Lord's Supper on behalf of the dead.

— Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV (Of the Mass), §94 (Melanchthon, 1531), thebookofconcord.org (cf. ccel.org). The Apology — the confession Luther subscribed and which entered the Book of Concord — draws the precise distinction: prayer for the dead as such is "not prohibited," but the ex opere operato Mass offered as a satisfaction for the dead is rejected root and branch. The same article carefully denies that the Lutherans side with the ancient heretic Aerius, "who held that prayers for the dead are useless" — they reject the sacrificial Mass, not the prayer.

Notes

• Luther's position is the hinge between the medieval doctrine and the fuller Reformed denial. Against Rome he tears out the satisfactory fire, the endowed Masses, and the obligation; against Calvin a generation later — who treats purgatory as "a deadly device of Satan" and rejects prayer for the dead with it — Luther keeps a permitted, restrained prayer for the departed. The two Reformers agree in denying purgatory but diverge on the surviving practice.
• This page treats Luther on purgatory and prayer for the dead. His distinct teaching on the descent into hell (the victorious-descent reading of the 1533 Torgau sermon) is set out on his intermediate-state detail page, and the confession that made his descent reading binding is the Formula of Concord (1577).
• Later confessional Lutheranism narrowed even Luther's permission: the modern LCMS and WELS discourage or reject prayer for the dead as lacking scriptural warrant and as too easily reopening the door to purgatory — so Luther's cautious "we do not prohibit" is not the uniform Lutheran position today.