Subject Area
History, Humanities, Religion, Social Sciences, General/Other, Theology/Religious Education
Abstract
Many early Christians believed that saints and martyrs could continue to aid Christians on earth after their deaths. In the 1500s, the Protestant reformers Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Thomas Cranmer, and the Protestant ecclesial traditions that they helped to form rejected as unscriptural the commonplace that saints in heaven actively interceded in the lives of the faithful on earth, insisting rather that the faithful should turn to no one in heaven for assistance but God alone. Nonetheless, a significant percentage of Protestant and Evangelical Christians today believe that loved ones in heaven can be present to and even help them. This dissertation explores the evolution of Christian understandings of a possible continuing relationship between deceased and living Christians in light of the Reformation era Protestant rejection of the cult of saints before proposing a theological framework that locates the intercession of Christians in heaven within Christ’s body as an expression of the life which Christ uniquely mediates, rather than an alien reality in competition with it.
After a brief introduction, chapter one traces the evolution of the cult of the saints from the late 300s to the time of the Protestant reformation, referencing especially the development of the devotion to St. Martin of Tours. The second chapter presents the principal reasons that the Protestant reformers Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and Thomas Cranmer rejected the practice of seeking assistance from the saints in heaven, giving special attention to the key Christological understandings that motivate this rejection. Since the Protestant reformers contended that they were restoring the faith and practice of the early Church, chapter three first considers the question of heavenly intercession within Judaism from the Second Temple Period onwards before presenting texts from the first three centuries of Christianity that indicate a confidence that Christians in heaven can assist persons on earth. The fourth chapter presents significant English language Protestant figures from the 1600s to the present who have sensed that Christians in heaven can continue to play an active role in the lives of the living. In the fifth chapter, I articulate a scripturally-grounded theological proposal within which particular intercession by deceased members of the body of Christ in favor of the living can be understood not as a betrayal of Christ’s unique mediation, but as a proper expression of the life that Christ alone makes possible. On the basis of this understanding, the force of the evidence offered through the intuitions of individual Protestants regarding a possible continuing and active relationship between the living and the dead can be more properly appreciated as a whole as an authentic response to the life Christ offers in the Spirit.
Degree Date
Spring 2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Religious Studies
Advisor
D. Stephen Long
Second Advisor
Bruce Marshall
Third Advisor
Rebekah Miles
Fourth Advisor
Frederick Aquino
Fifth Advisor
Joseph Mangina
Number of Pages
322
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Tan, Sylvester, "Heavenly Members of Christ’s Body Helping Those on Earth: Developing Protestant Understandings of Intercession" (2026). Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations. 47.
https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds/47
Included in
Catholic Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religion Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons
