Understanding Prayer for the Dead - Paperbackby James B. Gould (Author), Jerry L. Walls (Foreword by) Throughout history Christians have prayed for the dead both for continual growth of the faithful and for their advancement from purgatory, though not for the deliverance of the unsaved from hell. This book defends all three kinds of prayer. It challenges Protestants, who seldom pray for the dead, to begin doing so and Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, who pray only for the Christian dead, to