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Purgatory

April 29, 2023

For other uses, see Purgatory (disambiguation).
"Purification after death" redirects here. For the practice of cleaning the bodies of the recently deceased observed by various cultures, see Last offices.

Purgatory (Latin: purgatorium, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French)[1] is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations, an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification.[2] The process of purgatory is the final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.[3] Tradition, by reference to certain texts of scripture, sees the process as involving a cleansing fire. Some forms of Western Christianity, particularly within Protestantism, deny its existence. Other strands of Western Christianity see purgatory[4] as a place, perhaps filled with fire. Some concepts of Gehenna in Judaism resemble those of purgatory.

Image of a fiery purgatory by Ludovico Carracci

The word "purgatory" has come to refer to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation.[5] English-speakers also use the word in a non-specific sense to mean any place or condition of suffering or torment, especially one that is temporary.[6]

According to Jacques Le Goff, the conception of purgatory as a physical place came into existence in Western Europe toward the end of the twelfth century.[7] Le Goff states that the concept involves the idea of a purgatorial fire, which he suggests "is expiatory and purifying not punitive like hell fire".[8] At the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, when the Catholic Church defined, for the first time, its teaching on purgatory, the Eastern Orthodox Church did not adopt the doctrine. The council made no mention of purgatory as a third place or as containing fire,[9] which are absent also in the declarations by the Councils of Florence (1431-1449) and of Trent (1545-1563).[10] Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have written that the term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence.[11][12]

The Church of England, mother church of the Anglican Communion, officially denounces what it calls "the Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory",[13] but the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and elements of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist traditions hold that for some there is cleansing after death and pray for the dead.[14][15][16][17][18] The Reformed Churches teach that the departed are delivered from their sins through the process of glorification.[19] Rabbinical Judaism also believes in the possibility of after-death purification and may even use the word "purgatory" to describe the similar rabbinical concept of Gehenna, though Gehenna is also sometimes described[by whom?] as more similar to hell or Hades.[20]

History of the belief

Main article: History of purgatory
 
Image of a non-fiery purgatory (Gustave Doré: illustration for Dante's Purgatorio, Canto 24).

While use of the word "purgatory" (in Latin purgatorium, a place of cleansing, from the verb purgo, "to clean, cleanse"[21]) as a noun appeared perhaps only between 1160 and 1180, giving rise to the idea of purgatory as a place[22] (what Jacques Le Goff called the "birth" of purgatory),[7] the Roman Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional condition has a history that dates back, even before Jesus Christ, to the worldwide practice of caring for the dead and praying for them and to the belief, found also in Judaism, which is considered the precursor of Christianity, that prayer for the dead contributed to their afterlife purification. The same practice appears in other traditions, such as the medieval Chinese Buddhist practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead, who are said to suffer numerous trials.[5]

The Catholic church found specific Old Testament support in after-life purification in 2 Maccabees 12:42–45,[23] part of the Catholic biblical canon but regarded as apocryphal by Protestants and Jews.[24][25][5] According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, praying for the dead was adopted by Christians from the beginning,[26] a practice that presupposes that the dead are thereby assisted between death and their entry into their final abode.[5] The New American Bible Revised Edition, authorized by the United States Catholic bishops, says in a note to the 2 Maccabees passage: "This is the earliest statement of the doctrine that prayers and sacrifices for the dead are efficacious. Judas probably intended his purification offering to ward off punishment from the living. The author, however, uses the story to demonstrate belief in the resurrection of the just, and in the possibility of expiation for the sins of otherwise good people who have died. This belief is similar to, but not quite the same as, the Catholic doctrine of purgatory."[27]

Over the centuries, theologians and others have developed theories, imagined descriptions and composed legends that have contributed to the formation of a popular idea of purgatory much more detailed and elaborate than the quite minimal elements that have been officially declared to be part of the authentic teaching of the Church.

Shortly before becoming a Roman Catholic,[28] the English scholar John Henry Newman argued that the essence of the doctrine is locatable in ancient tradition, and that the core consistency of such beliefs is evidence that Christianity was "originally given to us from heaven".[29] The Catholic Church's teaching on purgatory, defined in the Second Council of Lyon (1274), the Council of Florence (1438–1445), and the Council of Trent (1545–63),[5][30] is without the imaginative accretions of the popular idea of purgatory.

Christianity

Some Christians, typically Roman Catholics, recognize the doctrine of purgatory. The Eastern Orthodox are less likely to use the term, although they acknowledge an intermediate state after death and before final judgment, and consequentially offer prayers for the dead.

Protestants usually don't, based on their doctrine of sola scriptura. Jesus is not recorded mentioning or otherwise endorsing the practice, and the old-covenant work 2 Maccabees is not accepted by them as scripture.

Catholicism

The Catholic Church holds that "all who die in God's grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified" undergo a process of purification, which the church calls purgatory, "so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven". Catholicism bases its teaching also on the practice of praying for the dead, in use within the church ever since the church began, and mentioned in the deuterocanonical book 2 Maccabees 12:46.[31]

The Catholic Church gives the name "purgatory" to what it calls the after-death purification of "all who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified.” [32] Though in popular imagination purgatory is pictured as a place rather than a process of purification, the idea of purgatory as a physical place with time is not part of the church's doctrine.[11] Fire, another important element of the purgatory of popular imagination, is also absent in the Catholic Church's doctrine.

The purgatory of Catholic doctrine

At the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, the Catholic Church defined, for the first time, its teaching on purgatory, in two points:

  1. some souls are purified after death;
  2. such souls benefit from the prayers and pious duties that the living do for them.

The council declared:

[I]f they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments, as Brother John has explained to us. And to relieve punishments of this kind, the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, alms, and other duties of piety, which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful according to the regulations of the Church.[33]

A century and a half later, the Council of Florence repeated the same two points in practically the same words, again excluding certain elements of the purgatory of popular imagination, in particular fire and place, against which representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church spoke at the council:[34]

[The Council] has likewise defined that if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by the worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments; and so that they may be released from punishments of this kind, the suffrages of the living faithful are of advantage to them, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, and almsgiving, and other works of piety, which are customarily performed by the faithful for other faithful according to the institutions of the Church.[35]

The Council of Trent repeated the same two points and moreover in its 4 December 1563 Decree Concerning Purgatory recommended avoidance of speculations and non-essential questions:

Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit, in conformity with the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers in sacred councils, and very recently in this ecumenical Synod, has taught that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained there are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful, and especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar, the holy Synod commands the bishops that they insist that the sound doctrine of purgatory, which has been transmitted by the holy Fathers and holy Councils, be believed by the faithful of Christ, be maintained, taught, and everywhere preached.
Let the more difficult and subtle "questions", however, and those which do not make for "edification" (cf. 1Tm 1,4), and from which there is very often no increase in piety, be excluded from popular discourses to uneducated people. Likewise, let them not permit uncertain matters, or those that have the appearance of falsehood, to be brought out and discussed publicly. Those matters on the contrary, which tend to a certain curiosity or superstition, or that savor of filthy lucre, let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling blocks to the faithful.[36]

Catholic doctrine on purgatory is presented as composed of the same two points in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, first published in 2005, which is a summary in dialogue form of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It deals with purgatory in the following exchange:[37]

210. What is purgatory?

Purgatory is the state of those who die in God's friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.

211. How can we help the souls being purified in purgatory?

Because of the communion of saints, the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice. They also help them by almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance.

These two questions and answers summarize information in sections 1030–1032[38] and 1054[39] of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, which also speaks of purgatory in sections 1472−1473.[40]

Role in relation to the church

The prayers of the saints in Heaven and the good deeds, works of mercy, prayers, and indulgences of the living have a twofold effect: they help the souls in Purgatory atone for their sins and they make the souls' own prayers for the living effective,[41] since the merits of the saints in Heaven, on Earth, and in Purgatory are part of the treasury of merit. Whenever the Eucharist is celebrated, souls in Purgatory are purified - i.e., they receive a full remission of sin and punishment - and go to Heaven.[42]

Role in relation to sin

According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, those who die in God's grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God.[43]

Unless "redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness", mortal sin, whose object is grave matter and is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, "causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back."[44] Such sin "makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the 'eternal punishment' of sin".[45]

Venial sin, while not depriving the sinner of friendship with God or the eternal happiness of heaven,[46] "weakens charity, manifests a disordered affection for created goods, and impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment",[46] for "every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the 'temporal punishment' of sin".[45]

"These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain."[45]

This purification from our sinful tendencies has been compared to rehabilitation of someone who needs to be cleansed of any addiction, a gradual and probably painful process. It can be advanced during life by voluntary self-mortification and penance and by deeds of generosity that show love of God rather than of creatures. If not completed before death, it can still be needed for entering the divine presence.[47] Catherine of Genoa said: "As for paradise, God has placed no doors there. Whoever wishes to enter, does so. An all-merciful God stands there with His arms open, waiting to receive us into His glory. I also see, however, that the divine presence is so pure and light-filled – much more than we can imagine – that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand hells than appear thus before the divine presence."[48]

A person seeking purification from sinful tendencies is not alone. Because of the communion of saints: "the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin".[49] The Catholic Church states that, through the granting of indulgences for manifestations of devotion, penance and charity by the living, it opens for individuals "the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins".[50]

Speculations and imaginings about purgatory

Some Catholic saints and theologians have had sometimes conflicting ideas about purgatory beyond those adopted by the Catholic Church, reflecting or contributing to the popular image, which includes the notions of purification by actual fire, in a determined place and for a precise length of time. Paul J. Griffiths notes: "Recent Catholic thought on purgatory typically preserves the essentials of the basic doctrine while also offering second-hand speculative interpretations of these elements".[51] Thus Joseph Ratzinger wrote: "Purgatory is not, as Tertullian thought, some kind of supra-worldly concentration camp where man is forced to undergo punishment in a more or less arbitrary fashion. Rather it is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God, and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints".[52]

The speculations and popular imaginings that, especially in late medieval times, were common in the Western or Latin Church have not necessarily found acceptance in the eastern Catholic Churches, of which there are 23 in full communion with the Pope. Some have explicitly rejected the notions of punishment by fire in a particular place that are prominent in the popular picture of purgatory. The representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church at the Council of Florence argued against these notions, while declaring that they do hold that there is a cleansing after death of the souls of the saved and that these are assisted by the prayers of the living: "If souls depart from this life in faith and charity but marked with some defilements, whether unrepented minor ones or major ones repented of but without having yet borne the fruits of repentance, we believe that within reason they are purified of those faults, but not by some purifying fire and particular punishments in some place."[53] The definition of purgatory adopted by that council excluded the two notions with which the Orthodox disagreed and mentioned only the two points that, they said, were part of their faith also. Accordingly, the agreement, known as the Union of Brest, that formalized the admission of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into the full communion of the Roman Catholic Church stated: "We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church".[54]

Fire

Fire has an important place in the popular image of purgatory and has been the object of speculation by theologians, speculation to which the article on purgatory in the Catholic Encyclopedia relates the warning by the Council of Trent against "difficult and subtle questions which tend not to edification."[55]

Fire has never been included in the Catholic Church's defined doctrine on purgatory, but speculation about it is traditional. "The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire."[56] In this regard the Catechism of the Catholic Church references in particular two New Testament passages: "If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire"[57] and "so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ".[58] Catholic theologians have also cited verses such as "I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God'",[59] a verse that the Jewish school of Shammai applied to God's judgment on those who are not completely just nor entirely evil.[60][61]

Use of the image of a purifying fire goes back as far as Origen who, with reference to 1 Corinthians 3:10–15, seen as referring to a process by which the dross of lighter transgressions will be burnt away, and the soul, thus purified, will be saved,[55][62] wrote: "Suppose you have built, after the foundation which Christ Jesus has taught, not only gold, silver, and precious stones − if indeed you possess gold and much silver or little − suppose you have silver, precious stones, but I say not only these elements, but suppose that you have also wood and hay and stubble, what does he wish you to become after your final departure? To enter afterwards then into the holy lands with your wood and with your hay and stubble so that you may defile the Kingdom of God? But again do you want to be left behind in the fire on account of the hay, the wood, the stubble, and to receive nothing due you for the gold and the silver and precious stone? That is not reasonable. What then? It follows that you receive the fire first due to the wood, and the hay and the stubble. For to those able to perceive, our God is said to be in reality a consuming fire."[63] Origen also speaks of a refining fire melting away the lead of evil deeds, leaving behind only pure gold.[64]

Augustine tentatively put forward the idea of a post-death purgatorial fire for some Christian believers: "69. It is not incredible that something like this should occur after this life, whether or not it is a matter for fruitful inquiry. It may be discovered or remain hidden whether some of the faithful are sooner or later to be saved by a sort of purgatorial fire, in proportion as they have loved the goods that perish, and in proportion to their attachment to them."[65]

Gregory the Great also argued for the existence, before Judgment, of a purgatorius ignis (a cleansing fire) to purge away minor faults (wood, hay, stubble) not mortal sins (iron, bronze, lead).[66] Pope Gregory, in the Dialogues, quotes Christ's words (in Mat 12:32) to establish Purgatory: "But yet we must believe that before the day of judgment there is a Purgatory fire for certain small sins: because our Saviour saith, that he which speaketh blasphemy against the holy Ghost, that it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. (Mat 12:32) Out of which sentence we learn, that some sins are forgiven in this world, and some other may be pardoned in the next: for that which is denied concerning one sin, is consequently understood to be granted touching some other."[67]

Gregory of Nyssa several times spoke of purgation by fire after death,[68] but he generally has apocatastasis in mind.[69]

Medieval theologians accepted the association of purgatory with fire. Thus the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas considered it probable that purgatory was situated close to hell, so that the same fire that tormented the damned cleansed the just souls in purgatory.[70]

Ideas about the supposed fire of purgatory have changed with time: in the early 20th century the Catholic Encyclopedia reported that, while in the past most theologians had held that the fire of purgatory was in some sense a material fire, though of a nature different from ordinary fire, the view of what then seemed to be the majority of theologians was that the term was to be understood metaphorically.[71][72]

Pope Benedict XVI recommended to theologians the presentation of purgatory by Catherine of Genoa, for whom purgatory is not an external but an inner fire: "The Saint speaks of the soul's journey of purification on the way to full communion with God, starting from her own experience of profound sorrow for the sins committed, in comparison with God's infinite love. [...] 'The soul', Catherine says, 'presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God'. Catherine asserts that God is so pure and holy that a soul stained by sin cannot be in the presence of the divine majesty. We too feel how distant we are, how full we are of so many things that we cannot see God. The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love; and love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin."[73]

In his 2007 encyclical Spe salvi, Pope Benedict XVI, referring to the words of Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 3:12–15 about a fire that both burns and saves, spoke of the opinion that "the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away.[74]

This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation 'as through fire'. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God.[74]

In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ's Passion. At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves.[74]

The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy. It is clear that we cannot calculate the 'duration' of this transforming burning in terms of the chronological measurements of this world. The transforming 'moment' of this encounter eludes earthly time-reckoning – it is the heart's time, it is the time of 'passage' to communion with God in the Body of Christ."[74]

Popular notion of purgatory as a place
 
The island of St Patrick's Purgatory

In his La naissance du Purgatoire (The Birth of Purgatory), Jacques Le Goff attributes the origin of the idea of a third other-world domain, similar to heaven and hell, called Purgatory, to Paris intellectuals and Cistercian monks at some point in the last three decades of the twelfth century, possibly as early as 1170−1180. Previously, the Latin adjective purgatorius, as in purgatorius ignis (cleansing fire) existed, but only then did the noun purgatorium appear, used as the name of a place called Purgatory.[75] Robert Bellarmine also taught "that Purgatory, at least the ordinary place of expiation, is situated in the interior of the earth, that the souls in Purgatory and the reprobate are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss which the Scripture calls Hell."[76][77]

The change happened at about the same time as the composition of the book Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii, an account by an English Cistercian of a penitent knight's visit to the land of purgatory reached through a cave in the island known as Station Island or St Patrick's Purgatory in the lake of Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland. Le Goff said this book "occupies an essential place in the history of Purgatory, in whose success it played an important, if not decisive, role".[78]

One of the earliest depictions of St Patrick's Purgatory is a fresco in the Convent of San Francisco in Todi, Umbria, Italy.[79][80] Whitewashed long ago, this fresco was only restored in 1976. The painter was likely Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio, and the date of the fresco is around 1345. Purgatory is shown as a rocky hill filled with separate openings into its hollow center. Above the mountain St Patrick introduces the prayers of the faithful that can help attenuate the sufferings of the souls undergoing purification. In each opening, sinners are tormented by demons and by fire. Each of the seven deadly sins – avarice, envy, sloth, pride, anger, lust, and gluttony – has its own region of purgatory and its own appropriate tortures.

 
Dante gazes at purgatory (shown as a mountain) in this 16th-century painting.

Le Goff dedicates the final chapter of his book to the Purgatorio, the second canticle of the Divine Comedy, a poem by fourteenth-century Italian author Dante Alighieri. In an interview Le Goff declared: "Dante's Purgatorio represents the sublime conclusion of the slow development of Purgatory that took place in the course of the Middle Ages. The power of Dante's poetry made a decisive contribution to fixing in the public imagination this 'third place', whose birth was on the whole quite recent."[81] Dante pictures the purgatory as an island at the antipodes of Jerusalem, pushed up, in an otherwise empty sea, by the displacement caused by the fall of Satan, which left him fixed at the central point of the globe of the Earth. The cone-shaped island has seven terraces on which souls are cleansed from the seven deadly sins or capital vices as they ascend. Additional spurs at the base hold those for whom beginning the ascent is delayed because in life they were excommunicates indolent or late repenters. At the summit is the Garden of Eden, from where the souls, cleansed of evil tendencies and made perfect, are taken to heaven.

The Catholic Church has included in its teaching the idea of a purgatory rather as a condition than a place. On 4 August 1999, Pope John Paul II, speaking of purgatory, said: "The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence. Those who, after death, exist in a state of purification, are already in the love of Christ who removes from them the remnants of imperfection as "a condition of existence".[11]

Similarly in 2011, Pope Benedict XVI, speaking of Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) in relation to purgatory, said that "In her day it was depicted mainly using images linked to space: a certain space was conceived of in which purgatory was supposed to be located. Catherine, however, did not see purgatory as a scene in the bowels of the earth: for her it is not an exterior but rather an interior fire. This is purgatory: an inner fire."[12]

Eastern Orthodoxy

See also: Prayer for the dead in Eastern Christianity and Orthodox memorial service
 
The Dormition of the Theotokos (a thirteenth-century icon)

While the Eastern Orthodox Church rejects the term purgatory, it acknowledges an intermediate state after death and before final judgment, and offers prayer for the dead. According to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America:

The moral progress of the soul, either for better or for worse, ends at the very moment of the separation of the body and soul; at that very moment the definite destiny of the soul in the everlasting life is decided. ...There is no way of repentance, no way of escape, no reincarnation and no help from the outside world. Its place is decided forever by its Creator and judge. The Orthodox Church does not believe in purgatory (a place of purging), that is, the inter-mediate state after death in which the souls of the saved (those who have not received temporal punishment for their sins) are purified of all taint preparatory to entering into Heaven, where every soul is perfect and fit to see God. Also, the Orthodox Church does not believe in indulgences as remissions from purgatorial punishment. Both purgatory and indulgences are inter-corelated theories, unwitnessed in the Bible or in the Ancient Church, and when they were enforced and applied they brought about evil practices at the expense of the prevailing Truths of the Church. If Almighty God in His merciful loving-kindness changes the dreadful situation of the sinner, it is unknown to the Church of Christ. The Church lived for fifteen hundred years without such a theory.[82]

Eastern Orthodox teaching is that, while all undergo an individual judgment immediately after death, neither the just nor the wicked attain the final state of bliss or punishment before the Last Day,[83] with some exceptions for righteous souls like the Theotokos (Blessed Virgin Mary), "who was borne by the angels directly to heaven."[84]

The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that it is necessary to believe in this intermediate after-death state in which souls are perfected and brought to full divinization, a process of growth rather than of punishment, which some Orthodox have called purgatory.[85] Eastern Orthodox theology does not generally describe the situation of the dead as involving suffering or fire, although it nevertheless describes it as a "direful condition".[86] The souls of the righteous dead are in light and rest, with a foretaste of eternal happiness; but the souls of the wicked are in a state the reverse of this. Among the latter, such souls as have departed with faith but "without having had time to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance ... may be aided towards the attainment of a blessed resurrection [at the end of time] by prayers offered in their behalf, especially those offered in union with the oblation of the bloodless sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, and by works of mercy done in faith for their memory."[87]

The state in which souls undergo this experience is often referred to as "Hades".[88]

The Orthodox Confession of Peter Mogila (1596–1646), adopted, in a Greek translation by Meletius Syrigos, by the 1642 Council of Jassy in Romania, professes that "many are freed from the prison of hell ... through the good works of the living and the Church's prayers for them, most of all through the unbloody sacrifice, which is offered on certain days for all the living and the dead" (question 64); and (under the heading "How must one consider the purgatorial fire?") "the Church rightly performs for them the unbloody sacrifice and prayers, but they do not cleanse themselves by suffering something. The Church never maintained that which pertains to the fanciful stories of some concerning the souls of their dead who have not done penance and are punished, as it were, in streams, springs and swamps." (question 66).[89]

The Eastern Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem (1672) declared: "The souls of those that have fallen asleep are either at rest or in torment, according to what each hath wrought" (an enjoyment or condemnation that will be complete only after the resurrection of the dead); but the souls of some "depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed. But they are aware of their future release from there, and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers of the Priests and the good works which the relatives of each do for their Departed, especially the unbloody Sacrifice benefiting the most, which each offers particularly for his relatives that have fallen asleep and which the Catholic and Apostolic Church offers daily for all alike. Of course, it is understood that we do not know the time of their release. We know and believe that there is deliverance for such from their direful condition, and that before the common resurrection and judgment, but when we know not."[86]

Some Orthodox believe in a teaching of "aerial toll-houses" for the souls of the dead. According to this theory, which is rejected by other Orthodox but appears in the hymnology of the church,[90] "following a person's death the soul leaves the body and is escorted to God by angels. During this journey the soul passes through an aerial realm which is ruled by demons. The soul encounters these demons at various points referred to as 'toll-houses' where the demons then attempt to accuse it of sin and, if possible, drag the soul into hell."[91]

Protestantism

Further information: Criticism of the Catholic Church § Criticism of purgatory

In general, Protestant churches reject the Catholic doctrine of purgatory although some teach the existence of an intermediate state. Many Protestant denominations, though not all, teach the doctrine of sola scriptura ("scripture alone") or prima scriptura ("scripture first"). The general Protestant view is that the Bible, from which Protestants exclude deuterocanonical books such as 2 Maccabees, contains no overt, explicit discussion of purgatory and therefore it should be rejected as an unbiblical belief.[92]

Another view held by many Protestants, such as the Lutheran Churches and the Reformed Churches, is sola fide ("by faith alone"): that faith alone is what achieves salvation, and that good works are merely evidence of that faith.[93] Justification is generally seen as a discrete event that takes place once for all during one's lifetime, not the result of a transformation of character. However, most Protestants teach that a transformation of character naturally follows the salvation experience; others, such as those of the Methodist tradition (inclusive of the Holiness Movement) teach that after justification, Christians must pursue holiness and good works.[94][95] Those who have been saved by God are destined for heaven, while those have not been saved will be excluded from heaven.[96]

Some Protestants hold that a person enters into the fullness of one's bliss or torment only after the resurrection of the body, and that the soul in that interim state is conscious and aware of the fate in store for it.[97] Others have held that souls in the intermediate state between death and resurrection are without consciousness, a state known as soul sleep.[98]

As an argument for the existence of purgatory, Protestant religious philosopher Jerry L. Walls[99] wrote Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation (2012). He lists some "biblical hints of purgatory" (Mal 3:2; 2 Mac 12:41–43; Mat 12:32; 1 Cor 3:12) that helped give rise to the doctrine,[100] and finds its beginnings in early Christian writers whom he calls "Fathers and Mothers of Purgatory".[101] Citing Le Goff, he sees the 12th century as that of the "birth of purgatory", arising as "a natural development of certain currents of thought that had been flowing for centuries",[102] and the 13th century at that of its rationalization, "purging it of its offensive popular trappings", leading to its definition by a council as the church's doctrine in 1274.[103]

Walls does not base his belief in purgatory primarily on scripture, the Mothers and Fathers of the Church, or the magisterium (doctrinal authority) of the Catholic Church. Rather his basic argument is that, in a phrase he often uses, it "makes sense."[104] For Walls, purgatory has a logic, as in the title of his book. He documents the "contrast between the satisfaction and sanctification models" of purgatory. In the satisfaction model, "the punishment of purgatory" is to satisfy God's justice. In the sanctification model, Wall writes: "Purgatory might be pictured ... as a regimen to regain one’s spiritual health and get back into moral shape."[105]

In Catholic theology Walls finds that the doctrine of purgatory has "swung" between the "poles of satisfaction and sanctification" sometimes "combining both elements somewhere in the middle". He believes the sanctification model "can be affirmed by Protestants without in any way contradicting their theology" and that they may find that it "makes better sense of how the remains of sin are purged" than an instantaneous cleansing at the moment of death.[106]

While purgatory was disputed by the Reformers, some early patristic theologians of the Eastern Church taught and believed in "apocatastasis", the belief that all creation would be restored to its original perfect condition after a remedial purgatorial reformation. Clement of Alexandria was one of the early church theologians who taught this view. Protestants have always contended that there are no second chances. However, for Lutherans a similar doctrine of what may happen to the unevangelized is expressed in the book titled What about those who never heard.[107] The reality of purgatorial purification is envisaged in Thomas Talbott's The Inescapable Love of God[108] Different views are expressed by different theologians in two different editions of Four Views of Hell.[109]

Anglicanism

Anglicans, as with other Reformed Churches, historically teach that the saved undergo the process of glorification after death.[110] This process has been compared by Jerry L. Walls and James B. Gould with the process of purification in the core doctrine of purgatory (see Reformed, below).

Purgatory was addressed by both of the "foundation features" of Anglicanism in the 16th century: the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer.[111]

Article XXII of the Thirty-Nine Articles states that "The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory . . . is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God."[112] Prayers for the departed were deleted from the 1552 Book of Common Prayer because they suggested a doctrine of purgatory. The 19th century Anglo-Catholic revival led to restoring prayers for the dead.[113]

John Henry Newman, in his Tract XC of 1841 §6, discussed Article XXII. He highlighted the fact that it is the "Romish" doctrine of purgatory coupled with indulgences that Article XXII condemns as "repugnant to the Word of God." The article did not condemn every doctrine of purgatory and it did not condemn prayers for the dead.[114]

As of the year 2000, the state of the doctrine of purgatory in Anglicanism was summarized as follows:

Purgatory is seldom mentioned in Anglican descriptions or speculations concerning life after death, although many Anglicans believe in a continuing process of growth and development after death.[115]

Anglican Bishop John Henry Hobart (1775–1830) wrote that "Hades, or the place of the dead, is represented as a spacious receptacle with gates, through which the dead enter."[116] The Anglican Catechist of 1855 elaborated on Hades, stating that it "is an intermediate state between death and the resurrection, in which the soul does not sleep in unconsciousness, but exists in happiness or misery till the resurrection, when it shall be reunited to the body and receive its final reward."[117] This intermediate state includes both Paradise and Gehenna, "but with an impassable gulf between the two".[16] Souls remain in Hades until the Final Judgment and "Christians may also improve in holiness after death during the middle state before the final judgment."[118]

Leonel L. Mitchell (1930–2012) offers this rationale for prayers for the dead:

No one is ready at the time of death to enter into life in the nearer presence of God without substantial growth precisely in love, knowledge, and service; and the prayer also recognizes that God will provide what is necessary for us to enter that state. This growth will presumably be between death and resurrection."[119]

Anglican theologian C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), reflecting on the history of the doctrine of purgatory in the Anglican Communion, said there were good reasons for "casting doubt on the 'Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory' as that Romish doctrine had then become" not merely a "commercial scandal" but also the picture in which the souls are tormented by devils, whose presence is "more horrible and grievous to us than is the pain itself," and where the spirit who suffers the tortures cannot, for pain, "remember God as he ought to do." Lewis believed instead in purgatory as presented in John Henry Newman's The Dream of Gerontius. By this poem, Lewis wrote, "Religion has reclaimed Purgatory," a process of purification that will normally involve suffering.[120] Lewis's allegory The Great Divorce (1945) considered a version of purgatory in the related idea of a "refrigidarium", the opportunity for souls to visit a lower region of heaven and choose to be saved, or not.

Lutheranism

The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther was once recorded as saying:[121]

As for purgatory, no place in Scripture makes mention thereof, neither must we any way allow it; for it darkens and undervalues the grace, benefits, and merits of our blessed, sweet Saviour Christ Jesus. The bounds of purgatory extend not beyond this world; for here in this life the upright, good, and godly Christians are well and soundly scoured and purged.

In his 1537 Smalcald Articles, Luther stated:[122]

Therefore purgatory, and every solemnity, rite, and commerce connected with it, is to be regarded as nothing but a specter of the devil. For it conflicts with the chief article [which teaches] that only Christ, and not the works of men, are to help [set free] souls. Not to mention the fact that nothing has been [divinely] commanded or enjoined upon us concerning the dead.

With respect to the related practice of praying for the dead, Luther stated:[123]

As for the dead, since Scripture gives us no information on the subject, I regard it as no sin to pray with free devotion in this or some similar fashion: “Dear God, if this soul is in a condition accessible to mercy, be thou gracious to it.” And when this has been done once or twice, let it suffice. (Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper, Vol. XXXVII, 369)[123]

A core statement of Lutheran doctrine, from the Book of Concord, states: "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. ... Epiphanius [of Salamis] testifies that Aerius [of Sebaste] held that prayers for the dead are useless. With this he finds fault. Neither do we favor Aerius, but we do argue with you because you defend a heresy that clearly conflicts with the prophets, apostles, and Holy Fathers, namely, that the Mass justifies ex opere operato, that it merits the remission of guilt and punishment even for the unjust, to whom it is applied, if they do not present an obstacle." (Philipp Melanchthon, Apology of the Augsburg Confession).[124] High Church Lutheranism, like Anglo-Catholicism, is more likely to accept some form of purgatory.[citation needed] Lutheran Reformer Mikael Agricola still believed in the basic beliefs of purgatory.[125] Purgatory as such is not mentioned at all in the Augsburg Confession, which claims that "our churches dissent in no article of the faith from the Church Catholic, but only omit some abuses which are new."[126]

Methodism

Further information: Last Judgment

Methodist churches, in keeping with Article XIV - Of Purgatory in the Articles of Religion, hold that "the Romish doctrine concerning purgatory ... is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God."[127] However, in the Methodist Church, there is a belief in Hades, "the intermediate state of souls between death and the general resurrection," which is divided into Paradise (for the righteous) and Gehenna (for the wicked).[128][129] After the general judgment, Hades will be abolished.[129] John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, "made a distinction between hell (the receptacle of the damned) and Hades (the receptacle of all separate spirits), and also between paradise (the antechamber of heaven) and heaven itself."[130][131] The dead will remain in Hades "until the Day of Judgment when we will all be bodily resurrected and stand before Christ as our Judge. After the Judgment, the Righteous will go to their eternal reward in Heaven and the Accursed will depart to Hell (see Matthew 25)."[132]

Reformed

Main article: Glorification § Reformed Churches

After death, Reformed theology teaches that through glorification, God "not only delivers His people from all their suffering and from death, but delivers them too from all their sins."[19] In glorification, Reformed Christians believe that the departed are "raised and made like the glorious body of Christ".[19] Reformed theologian John F. MacArthur has written that "nothing in Scripture even hints at the notion of purgatory, and nothing indicates that our glorification will in any way be painful."[133]

Jerry L. Walls and James B. Gould have likened the glorification process to the core or sanctification view of purgatory[134] "Grace is much more than forgiveness, it is also transformation and sanctification, and finally, glorification. We need more than forgiveness and justification to purge our sinful dispositions and make us fully ready for heaven. Purgatory is nothing more than the continuation of the sanctifying grace we need, for as long as necessary to complete the job".[135]

Latter-day Saint Movement

Main articles: Spirit world (Latter Day Saints), plan of salvation (Latter Day Saints), and Mormon cosmology

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, teaches of an intermediate place for spirits between their death and their bodily resurrection. This place, called "the spirit world," includes "paradise" for the righteous and "prison" for those who do not know God. Spirits in paradise serve as missionaries to the spirits in prison, who can still accept salvation. In this sense, spirit prison can be conceptualized as a type of purgatory. In addition to hearing the message from the missionary spirits, the spirits in prison can also accept posthumous baptism and other posthumous ordinances performed by living church members in temples on Earth. This is frequently referred to as "baptism for the dead" and "temple work."[136] Members of the church believe that during the three days following Christ's crucifixion, he organized spirits in paradise and commissioned them to preach to the spirits in prison.[137]

Judaism

In Judaism, Gehenna is a place of purification where, according to some traditions, most sinners spend up to a year before release.

The view of purgatory can be found in the teaching of the Shammaites: "In the last judgment day there shall be three classes of souls: the righteous shall at once be written down for the life everlasting; the wicked, for Gehenna; but those whose virtues and sins counterbalance one another shall go down to Gehenna and float up and down until they rise purified; for of them it is said: 'I will bring the third part into the fire and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried' [Zech. xiii. 9.]; also, 'He [the Lord] bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up again'" (I Sam. ii. 6). The Hillelites seem to have had no purgatory; for they said: "He who is 'plenteous in mercy' [Ex. xxxiv. 6.] inclines the balance toward mercy, and consequently the intermediates do not descend into Gehenna" (Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 3; R. H. 16b; Bacher, "Ag. Tan." i. 18). Still they also speak of an intermediate state.

Regarding the time which purgatory lasts, the accepted opinion of R. Akiba is twelve months; according to R. Johanan b. Nuri, it is only forty-nine days. Both opinions are based upon Isa. lxvi. 23–24: "From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before Me, and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched"; the former interpreting the words "from one new moon to another" to signify all the months of a year; the latter interpreting the words "from one Sabbath to another," in accordance with Lev. xxiii. 15–16, to signify seven weeks. During the twelve months, declares the baraita (Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 4–5; R. H. 16b), the souls of the wicked are judged, and after these twelve months are over they are consumed and transformed into ashes under the feet of the righteous (according to Mal. iii. 21 [A. V. iv. 3]), whereas the great seducers and blasphemers are to undergo eternal tortures in Gehenna without cessation (according to Isa. lxvi. 24).

The righteous, however, and, according to some, also the sinners among the people of Israel for whom Abraham intercedes because they bear the Abrahamic sign of the covenant are not harmed by the fire of Gehenna even when they are required to pass through the intermediate state of purgatory ('Er. 19b; Ḥag. 27a).[138]

Maimonides declares, in his 13 principles of faith, that the descriptions of Gehenna, as a place of punishment in rabbinic literature, were pedagocically motivated inventions to encourage respect of the Torah commandments by mankind, which had been regarded as immature.[139] Instead of being sent to Gehenna, the souls of the wicked would actually get annihilated.[140]

Islam

See also: Araf (Islam)

Jahannam refers to both the entirety of hell, as well as to its upper most layer.[141] [142]Jahannam has been conceptualized as a temporary place for Muslim sinners. Unlike the rest of hell, when the last Muslim sinner repented, Jahannam would cease to exist.[143]

Some scholars asserted by referring to God's mercy (r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi) that hell will eventually end. This doctrine is referred to as fana' al-nar ('annihilation of fire'), proposed by scholars such as ibn Taimiyya. However, this doctrine is not universally accepted in Islam and rejected by the majority.[144]

Indian religions

Indian religions believe in purification of the soul in Naraka.[citation needed]

Zoroastrianism

According to Zoroastrian eschatology, the wicked will get purified in molten metal.[145]

Mandaeism

In Mandaean cosmology, the soul must go through multiple maṭarta (i.e., purgatories, watch-stations, or toll-stations) after death before finally reaching the World of Light ("heaven").[146]

The Mandaeans believe in purification of souls inside of Leviathan,[147] whom they also call Ur.[148]

See also

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  95. ^ Brown, Dr Allan (1 June 2008). "Questions About Entire Sanctification". God's Bible School & College. from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019. A Christian must continue to walk in all the light he or she has or become guilty of walking in darkness, which is willful sin. A person practicing willful sin is not saved (1 John 2:3–6; 3:4–10).
  96. ^ Alan Richardson, John Bowden, eds, The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox, 1983), s.v. salvation 519.
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Further reading

  • Baxter, Roger (1823). "Purgatory" . Meditations For Every Day In The Year. New York: Benziger Brothers. pp. 57–59.
  • Berington, Joseph (1830). "Purgatory." . The Faith of Catholics: confirmed by Scripture, and attested by the Fathers of the five first centuries of the Church, Volume 1. Jos. Booker. pp. 354–374.
  • Hunolt, Franz (1897). "Sermon 17: On Purgatory After Death." . Sermons on the four last things: Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven. Benzinger Brothers.
  • Schouppe, F.X. (1920). "Part I: Chapters I - IV" . Purgatory: illustrated by the lives and legends of the saints. London: Benziger Brothers.
  • Hanna, Edward Joseph (1911). "Purgatory" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  • Vanhoutte, Kristof K.P. and McCraw, Benjamin W. (eds.). Purgatory. Philosophical Dimensions (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017)
  • Gould, James B. Understanding Prayer for the Dead: Its Foundation in History and Logic (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2016).
  • Le Goff, Jacques. The Birth of Purgatory (U of Chicago Press, 1986).
  • Pasulka, Diana Walsh. Heaven Can Wait: Purgatory in Catholic Devotional and Popular Culture (Oxford UP, 2015) online review
  • Tingle, Elizabeth C. Purgatory and Piety in Brittany 1480–1720 (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013).
  • Walls, Jerry L. (2012). Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation. Oxford UP. ISBN 9780199732296.
  • Purgatory at the Internet Archive by F. X. Schouppe (1893) London: Burns & Oates.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Purgatory.
 
Look up Purgatory in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • on Internet Archive
  • Purgatory. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009.
  • English c. 1200 wall painting with an image of a ladder, reminiscent of icons such as the Ladder of Divine Ascent, which has been interpreted as a "purgatorial ladder"
  • Quran Inspector: Chapter 7: "The Purgatory (Al-A'araf)" ( سورة الأعراف ) at submission.org

April 29, 2023
purgatory, other, uses, disambiguation, purification, after, death, redirects, here, practice, cleaning, bodies, recently, deceased, observed, various, cultures, last, offices, latin, purgatorium, borrowed, into, english, anglo, norman, french, according, beli. For other uses see Purgatory disambiguation Purification after death redirects here For the practice of cleaning the bodies of the recently deceased observed by various cultures see Last offices Purgatory Latin purgatorium borrowed into English via Anglo Norman and Old French 1 is according to the belief of some Christian denominations an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification 2 The process of purgatory is the final purification of the elect which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned 3 Tradition by reference to certain texts of scripture sees the process as involving a cleansing fire Some forms of Western Christianity particularly within Protestantism deny its existence Other strands of Western Christianity see purgatory 4 as a place perhaps filled with fire Some concepts of Gehenna in Judaism resemble those of purgatory Image of a fiery purgatory by Ludovico Carracci The word purgatory has come to refer to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation 5 English speakers also use the word in a non specific sense to mean any place or condition of suffering or torment especially one that is temporary 6 According to Jacques Le Goff the conception of purgatory as a physical place came into existence in Western Europe toward the end of the twelfth century 7 Le Goff states that the concept involves the idea of a purgatorial fire which he suggests is expiatory and purifying not punitive like hell fire 8 At the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 when the Catholic Church defined for the first time its teaching on purgatory the Eastern Orthodox Church did not adopt the doctrine The council made no mention of purgatory as a third place or as containing fire 9 which are absent also in the declarations by the Councils of Florence 1431 1449 and of Trent 1545 1563 10 Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have written that the term does not indicate a place but a condition of existence 11 12 The Church of England mother church of the Anglican Communion officially denounces what it calls the Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory 13 but the Eastern Orthodox Church Oriental Orthodox Churches and elements of the Anglican Lutheran and Methodist traditions hold that for some there is cleansing after death and pray for the dead 14 15 16 17 18 The Reformed Churches teach that the departed are delivered from their sins through the process of glorification 19 Rabbinical Judaism also believes in the possibility of after death purification and may even use the word purgatory to describe the similar rabbinical concept of Gehenna though Gehenna is also sometimes described by whom as more similar to hell or Hades 20 Contents 1 History of the belief 2 Christianity 2 1 Catholicism 2 1 1 The purgatory of Catholic doctrine 2 1 1 1 Role in relation to the church 2 1 1 2 Role in relation to sin 2 1 2 Speculations and imaginings about purgatory 2 1 2 1 Fire 2 1 2 2 Popular notion of purgatory as a place 2 2 Eastern Orthodoxy 2 3 Protestantism 2 3 1 Anglicanism 2 3 2 Lutheranism 2 3 3 Methodism 2 3 4 Reformed 2 4 Latter day Saint Movement 3 Judaism 4 Islam 5 Indian religions 6 Zoroastrianism 7 Mandaeism 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksHistory of the belief EditMain article History of purgatory Image of a non fiery purgatory Gustave Dore illustration for Dante s Purgatorio Canto 24 While use of the word purgatory in Latin purgatorium a place of cleansing from the verb purgo to clean cleanse 21 as a noun appeared perhaps only between 1160 and 1180 giving rise to the idea of purgatory as a place 22 what Jacques Le Goff called the birth of purgatory 7 the Roman Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional condition has a history that dates back even before Jesus Christ to the worldwide practice of caring for the dead and praying for them and to the belief found also in Judaism which is considered the precursor of Christianity that prayer for the dead contributed to their afterlife purification The same practice appears in other traditions such as the medieval Chinese Buddhist practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead who are said to suffer numerous trials 5 The Catholic church found specific Old Testament support in after life purification in 2 Maccabees 12 42 45 23 part of the Catholic biblical canon but regarded as apocryphal by Protestants and Jews 24 25 5 According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church praying for the dead was adopted by Christians from the beginning 26 a practice that presupposes that the dead are thereby assisted between death and their entry into their final abode 5 The New American Bible Revised Edition authorized by the United States Catholic bishops says in a note to the 2 Maccabees passage This is the earliest statement of the doctrine that prayers and sacrifices for the dead are efficacious Judas probably intended his purification offering to ward off punishment from the living The author however uses the story to demonstrate belief in the resurrection of the just and in the possibility of expiation for the sins of otherwise good people who have died This belief is similar to but not quite the same as the Catholic doctrine of purgatory 27 Over the centuries theologians and others have developed theories imagined descriptions and composed legends that have contributed to the formation of a popular idea of purgatory much more detailed and elaborate than the quite minimal elements that have been officially declared to be part of the authentic teaching of the Church Shortly before becoming a Roman Catholic 28 the English scholar John Henry Newman argued that the essence of the doctrine is locatable in ancient tradition and that the core consistency of such beliefs is evidence that Christianity was originally given to us from heaven 29 The Catholic Church s teaching on purgatory defined in the Second Council of Lyon 1274 the Council of Florence 1438 1445 and the Council of Trent 1545 63 5 30 is without the imaginative accretions of the popular idea of purgatory Christianity EditSome Christians typically Roman Catholics recognize the doctrine of purgatory The Eastern Orthodox are less likely to use the term although they acknowledge an intermediate state after death and before final judgment and consequentially offer prayers for the dead Protestants usually don t based on their doctrine of sola scriptura Jesus is not recorded mentioning or otherwise endorsing the practice and the old covenant work 2 Maccabees is not accepted by them as scripture Catholicism Edit The Catholic Church holds that all who die in God s grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified undergo a process of purification which the church calls purgatory so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven Catholicism bases its teaching also on the practice of praying for the dead in use within the church ever since the church began and mentioned in the deuterocanonical book 2 Maccabees 12 46 31 The Catholic Church gives the name purgatory to what it calls the after death purification of all who die in God s grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified 32 Though in popular imagination purgatory is pictured as a place rather than a process of purification the idea of purgatory as a physical place with time is not part of the church s doctrine 11 Fire another important element of the purgatory of popular imagination is also absent in the Catholic Church s doctrine The purgatory of Catholic doctrine Edit At the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 the Catholic Church defined for the first time its teaching on purgatory in two points some souls are purified after death such souls benefit from the prayers and pious duties that the living do for them The council declared I f they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for sins committed and omitted their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments as Brother John has explained to us And to relieve punishments of this kind the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these namely the sacrifices of Masses prayers alms and other duties of piety which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful according to the regulations of the Church 33 A century and a half later the Council of Florence repeated the same two points in practically the same words again excluding certain elements of the purgatory of popular imagination in particular fire and place against which representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church spoke at the council 34 The Council has likewise defined that if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God before they have made satisfaction by the worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments and so that they may be released from punishments of this kind the suffrages of the living faithful are of advantage to them namely the sacrifices of Masses prayers and almsgiving and other works of piety which are customarily performed by the faithful for other faithful according to the institutions of the Church 35 The Council of Trent repeated the same two points and moreover in its 4 December 1563 Decree Concerning Purgatory recommended avoidance of speculations and non essential questions Since the Catholic Church instructed by the Holy Spirit in conformity with the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers in sacred councils and very recently in this ecumenical Synod has taught that there is a purgatory and that the souls detained there are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful and especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar the holy Synod commands the bishops that they insist that the sound doctrine of purgatory which has been transmitted by the holy Fathers and holy Councils be believed by the faithful of Christ be maintained taught and everywhere preached Let the more difficult and subtle questions however and those which do not make for edification cf 1Tm 1 4 and from which there is very often no increase in piety be excluded from popular discourses to uneducated people Likewise let them not permit uncertain matters or those that have the appearance of falsehood to be brought out and discussed publicly Those matters on the contrary which tend to a certain curiosity or superstition or that savor of filthy lucre let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling blocks to the faithful 36 Catholic doctrine on purgatory is presented as composed of the same two points in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church first published in 2005 which is a summary in dialogue form of the Catechism of the Catholic Church It deals with purgatory in the following exchange 37 210 What is purgatory Purgatory is the state of those who die in God s friendship assured of their eternal salvation but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven 211 How can we help the souls being purified in purgatory Because of the communion of saints the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them especially the Eucharistic sacrifice They also help them by almsgiving indulgences and works of penance These two questions and answers summarize information in sections 1030 1032 38 and 1054 39 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church published in 1992 which also speaks of purgatory in sections 1472 1473 40 Role in relation to the church Edit The prayers of the saints in Heaven and the good deeds works of mercy prayers and indulgences of the living have a twofold effect they help the souls in Purgatory atone for their sins and they make the souls own prayers for the living effective 41 since the merits of the saints in Heaven on Earth and in Purgatory are part of the treasury of merit Whenever the Eucharist is celebrated souls in Purgatory are purified i e they receive a full remission of sin and punishment and go to Heaven 42 Role in relation to sin Edit According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church those who die in God s grace and friendship imperfectly purified although they are assured of their eternal salvation undergo a purification after death so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God 43 Unless redeemed by repentance and God s forgiveness mortal sin whose object is grave matter and is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent causes exclusion from Christ s kingdom and the eternal death of hell for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever with no turning back 44 Such sin makes us incapable of eternal life the privation of which is called the eternal punishment of sin 45 Venial sin while not depriving the sinner of friendship with God or the eternal happiness of heaven 46 weakens charity manifests a disordered affection for created goods and impedes the soul s progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good it merits temporal punishment 46 for every sin even venial entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures which must be purified either here on earth or after death in the state called Purgatory This purification frees one from what is called the temporal punishment of sin 45 These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without but as following from the very nature of sin A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain 45 This purification from our sinful tendencies has been compared to rehabilitation of someone who needs to be cleansed of any addiction a gradual and probably painful process It can be advanced during life by voluntary self mortification and penance and by deeds of generosity that show love of God rather than of creatures If not completed before death it can still be needed for entering the divine presence 47 Catherine of Genoa said As for paradise God has placed no doors there Whoever wishes to enter does so An all merciful God stands there with His arms open waiting to receive us into His glory I also see however that the divine presence is so pure and light filled much more than we can imagine that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand hells than appear thus before the divine presence 48 A person seeking purification from sinful tendencies is not alone Because of the communion of saints the holiness of one profits others well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin 49 The Catholic Church states that through the granting of indulgences for manifestations of devotion penance and charity by the living it opens for individuals the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins 50 Speculations and imaginings about purgatory Edit Some Catholic saints and theologians have had sometimes conflicting ideas about purgatory beyond those adopted by the Catholic Church reflecting or contributing to the popular image which includes the notions of purification by actual fire in a determined place and for a precise length of time Paul J Griffiths notes Recent Catholic thought on purgatory typically preserves the essentials of the basic doctrine while also offering second hand speculative interpretations of these elements 51 Thus Joseph Ratzinger wrote Purgatory is not as Tertullian thought some kind of supra worldly concentration camp where man is forced to undergo punishment in a more or less arbitrary fashion Rather it is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ capable of God and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints 52 The speculations and popular imaginings that especially in late medieval times were common in the Western or Latin Church have not necessarily found acceptance in the eastern Catholic Churches of which there are 23 in full communion with the Pope Some have explicitly rejected the notions of punishment by fire in a particular place that are prominent in the popular picture of purgatory The representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church at the Council of Florence argued against these notions while declaring that they do hold that there is a cleansing after death of the souls of the saved and that these are assisted by the prayers of the living If souls depart from this life in faith and charity but marked with some defilements whether unrepented minor ones or major ones repented of but without having yet borne the fruits of repentance we believe that within reason they are purified of those faults but not by some purifying fire and particular punishments in some place 53 The definition of purgatory adopted by that council excluded the two notions with which the Orthodox disagreed and mentioned only the two points that they said were part of their faith also Accordingly the agreement known as the Union of Brest that formalized the admission of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into the full communion of the Roman Catholic Church stated We shall not debate about purgatory but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church 54 Fire Edit Fire has an important place in the popular image of purgatory and has been the object of speculation by theologians speculation to which the article on purgatory in the Catholic Encyclopedia relates the warning by the Council of Trent against difficult and subtle questions which tend not to edification 55 Fire has never been included in the Catholic Church s defined doctrine on purgatory but speculation about it is traditional The tradition of the Church by reference to certain texts of Scripture speaks of a cleansing fire 56 In this regard the Catechism of the Catholic Church references in particular two New Testament passages If anyone s work is burned up he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved but only as through fire 57 and so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ 58 Catholic theologians have also cited verses such as I will put this third into the fire and refine them as one refines silver and test them as gold is tested They will call upon my name and I will answer them I will say They are my people and they will say The LORD is my God 59 a verse that the Jewish school of Shammai applied to God s judgment on those who are not completely just nor entirely evil 60 61 Use of the image of a purifying fire goes back as far as Origen who with reference to 1 Corinthians 3 10 15 seen as referring to a process by which the dross of lighter transgressions will be burnt away and the soul thus purified will be saved 55 62 wrote Suppose you have built after the foundation which Christ Jesus has taught not only gold silver and precious stones if indeed you possess gold and much silver or little suppose you have silver precious stones but I say not only these elements but suppose that you have also wood and hay and stubble what does he wish you to become after your final departure To enter afterwards then into the holy lands with your wood and with your hay and stubble so that you may defile the Kingdom of God But again do you want to be left behind in the fire on account of the hay the wood the stubble and to receive nothing due you for the gold and the silver and precious stone That is not reasonable What then It follows that you receive the fire first due to the wood and the hay and the stubble For to those able to perceive our God is said to be in reality a consuming fire 63 Origen also speaks of a refining fire melting away the lead of evil deeds leaving behind only pure gold 64 Augustine tentatively put forward the idea of a post death purgatorial fire for some Christian believers 69 It is not incredible that something like this should occur after this life whether or not it is a matter for fruitful inquiry It may be discovered or remain hidden whether some of the faithful are sooner or later to be saved by a sort of purgatorial fire in proportion as they have loved the goods that perish and in proportion to their attachment to them 65 Gregory the Great also argued for the existence before Judgment of a purgatorius ignis a cleansing fire to purge away minor faults wood hay stubble not mortal sins iron bronze lead 66 Pope Gregory in the Dialogues quotes Christ s words in Mat 12 32 to establish Purgatory But yet we must believe that before the day of judgment there is a Purgatory fire for certain small sins because our Saviour saith that he which speaketh blasphemy against the holy Ghost that it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come Mat 12 32 Out of which sentence we learn that some sins are forgiven in this world and some other may be pardoned in the next for that which is denied concerning one sin is consequently understood to be granted touching some other 67 Gregory of Nyssa several times spoke of purgation by fire after death 68 but he generally has apocatastasis in mind 69 Medieval theologians accepted the association of purgatory with fire Thus the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas considered it probable that purgatory was situated close to hell so that the same fire that tormented the damned cleansed the just souls in purgatory 70 Ideas about the supposed fire of purgatory have changed with time in the early 20th century the Catholic Encyclopedia reported that while in the past most theologians had held that the fire of purgatory was in some sense a material fire though of a nature different from ordinary fire the view of what then seemed to be the majority of theologians was that the term was to be understood metaphorically 71 72 Pope Benedict XVI recommended to theologians the presentation of purgatory by Catherine of Genoa for whom purgatory is not an external but an inner fire The Saint speaks of the soul s journey of purification on the way to full communion with God starting from her own experience of profound sorrow for the sins committed in comparison with God s infinite love The soul Catherine says presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God Catherine asserts that God is so pure and holy that a soul stained by sin cannot be in the presence of the divine majesty We too feel how distant we are how full we are of so many things that we cannot see God The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love and love for God itself becomes a flame love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin 73 In his 2007 encyclical Spe salvi Pope Benedict XVI referring to the words of Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 3 12 15 about a fire that both burns and saves spoke of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself the Judge and Saviour The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement Before his gaze all falsehood melts away 74 This encounter with him as it burns us transforms and frees us allowing us to become truly ourselves All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw pure bluster and it collapses Yet in the pain of this encounter when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us there lies salvation His gaze the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation as through fire But it is a blessed pain in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God 74 In this way the inter relation between justice and grace also becomes clear the way we live our lives is not immaterial but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ towards truth and towards love Indeed it has already been burned away through Christ s Passion At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves 74 The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy It is clear that we cannot calculate the duration of this transforming burning in terms of the chronological measurements of this world The transforming moment of this encounter eludes earthly time reckoning it is the heart s time it is the time of passage to communion with God in the Body of Christ 74 Purgatory by Peter Paul Rubens Altar in Iglesia de la Concepcion Santa Cruz de Tenerife A fiery purgatory in the Tres riches heures du Duc de Berry Our Lady of Mount Carmel and purgatory Beniajan Spain Our Lady of Mount Carmel and purgatory North End Boston Detail of altar in Lutheran church in Auhausen Bavaria Our Lady St Monica and souls in purgatory Rattenberg Tyrol Our Lady of Passau in St Felix Church Kientzheim Alsace Purgatory 1419 drawing by unknown artist from Strasbourg Painting by Michel Serre in the Saint Cannat Church Marseilles Altar predella in the town church of Bad Wimpfen Baden Wurttemberg Request for prayer for the souls in purgatory Stained glass window in Puerto Rico Cathedral Purgatory by Venezuelan painter Cristobal Rojas 1890 Ceiling of St Ulrich Church in Pillersee Tyrol Austria Our Lady Interceding for the Souls in Purgatory by Andrea Vaccaro Miniature by Stefan Lochner showing souls in purgatory Azulejo of souls in purgatory Seville SpainPopular notion of purgatory as a place Edit The island of St Patrick s Purgatory In his La naissance du Purgatoire The Birth of Purgatory Jacques Le Goff attributes the origin of the idea of a third other world domain similar to heaven and hell called Purgatory to Paris intellectuals and Cistercian monks at some point in the last three decades of the twelfth century possibly as early as 1170 1180 Previously the Latin adjective purgatorius as in purgatorius ignis cleansing fire existed but only then did the noun purgatorium appear used as the name of a place called Purgatory 75 Robert Bellarmine also taught that Purgatory at least the ordinary place of expiation is situated in the interior of the earth that the souls in Purgatory and the reprobate are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss which the Scripture calls Hell 76 77 The change happened at about the same time as the composition of the book Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii an account by an English Cistercian of a penitent knight s visit to the land of purgatory reached through a cave in the island known as Station Island or St Patrick s Purgatory in the lake of Lough Derg County Donegal Ireland Le Goff said this book occupies an essential place in the history of Purgatory in whose success it played an important if not decisive role 78 One of the earliest depictions of St Patrick s Purgatory is a fresco in the Convent of San Francisco in Todi Umbria Italy 79 80 Whitewashed long ago this fresco was only restored in 1976 The painter was likely Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio and the date of the fresco is around 1345 Purgatory is shown as a rocky hill filled with separate openings into its hollow center Above the mountain St Patrick introduces the prayers of the faithful that can help attenuate the sufferings of the souls undergoing purification In each opening sinners are tormented by demons and by fire Each of the seven deadly sins avarice envy sloth pride anger lust and gluttony has its own region of purgatory and its own appropriate tortures Dante gazes at purgatory shown as a mountain in this 16th century painting Le Goff dedicates the final chapter of his book to the Purgatorio the second canticle of the Divine Comedy a poem by fourteenth century Italian author Dante Alighieri In an interview Le Goff declared Dante s Purgatorio represents the sublime conclusion of the slow development of Purgatory that took place in the course of the Middle Ages The power of Dante s poetry made a decisive contribution to fixing in the public imagination this third place whose birth was on the whole quite recent 81 Dante pictures the purgatory as an island at the antipodes of Jerusalem pushed up in an otherwise empty sea by the displacement caused by the fall of Satan which left him fixed at the central point of the globe of the Earth The cone shaped island has seven terraces on which souls are cleansed from the seven deadly sins or capital vices as they ascend Additional spurs at the base hold those for whom beginning the ascent is delayed because in life they were excommunicates indolent or late repenters At the summit is the Garden of Eden from where the souls cleansed of evil tendencies and made perfect are taken to heaven The Catholic Church has included in its teaching the idea of a purgatory rather as a condition than a place On 4 August 1999 Pope John Paul II speaking of purgatory said The term does not indicate a place but a condition of existence Those who after death exist in a state of purification are already in the love of Christ who removes from them the remnants of imperfection as a condition of existence 11 Similarly in 2011 Pope Benedict XVI speaking of Saint Catherine of Genoa 1447 1510 in relation to purgatory said that In her day it was depicted mainly using images linked to space a certain space was conceived of in which purgatory was supposed to be located Catherine however did not see purgatory as a scene in the bowels of the earth for her it is not an exterior but rather an interior fire This is purgatory an inner fire 12 Eastern Orthodoxy Edit See also Prayer for the dead in Eastern Christianity and Orthodox memorial service The Dormition of the Theotokos a thirteenth century icon While the Eastern Orthodox Church rejects the term purgatory it acknowledges an intermediate state after death and before final judgment and offers prayer for the dead According to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America The moral progress of the soul either for better or for worse ends at the very moment of the separation of the body and soul at that very moment the definite destiny of the soul in the everlasting life is decided There is no way of repentance no way of escape no reincarnation and no help from the outside world Its place is decided forever by its Creator and judge The Orthodox Church does not believe in purgatory a place of purging that is the inter mediate state after death in which the souls of the saved those who have not received temporal punishment for their sins are purified of all taint preparatory to entering into Heaven where every soul is perfect and fit to see God Also the Orthodox Church does not believe in indulgences as remissions from purgatorial punishment Both purgatory and indulgences are inter corelated theories unwitnessed in the Bible or in the Ancient Church and when they were enforced and applied they brought about evil practices at the expense of the prevailing Truths of the Church If Almighty God in His merciful loving kindness changes the dreadful situation of the sinner it is unknown to the Church of Christ The Church lived for fifteen hundred years without such a theory 82 Eastern Orthodox teaching is that while all undergo an individual judgment immediately after death neither the just nor the wicked attain the final state of bliss or punishment before the Last Day 83 with some exceptions for righteous souls like the Theotokos Blessed Virgin Mary who was borne by the angels directly to heaven 84 The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that it is necessary to believe in this intermediate after death state in which souls are perfected and brought to full divinization a process of growth rather than of punishment which some Orthodox have called purgatory 85 Eastern Orthodox theology does not generally describe the situation of the dead as involving suffering or fire although it nevertheless describes it as a direful condition 86 The souls of the righteous dead are in light and rest with a foretaste of eternal happiness but the souls of the wicked are in a state the reverse of this Among the latter such souls as have departed with faith but without having had time to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance may be aided towards the attainment of a blessed resurrection at the end of time by prayers offered in their behalf especially those offered in union with the oblation of the bloodless sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ and by works of mercy done in faith for their memory 87 The state in which souls undergo this experience is often referred to as Hades 88 The Orthodox Confession of Peter Mogila 1596 1646 adopted in a Greek translation by Meletius Syrigos by the 1642 Council of Jassy in Romania professes that many are freed from the prison of hell through the good works of the living and the Church s prayers for them most of all through the unbloody sacrifice which is offered on certain days for all the living and the dead question 64 and under the heading How must one consider the purgatorial fire the Church rightly performs for them the unbloody sacrifice and prayers but they do not cleanse themselves by suffering something The Church never maintained that which pertains to the fanciful stories of some concerning the souls of their dead who have not done penance and are punished as it were in streams springs and swamps question 66 89 The Eastern Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem 1672 declared The souls of those that have fallen asleep are either at rest or in torment according to what each hath wrought an enjoyment or condemnation that will be complete only after the resurrection of the dead but the souls of some depart into Hades and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed But they are aware of their future release from there and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness through the prayers of the Priests and the good works which the relatives of each do for their Departed especially the unbloody Sacrifice benefiting the most which each offers particularly for his relatives that have fallen asleep and which the Catholic and Apostolic Church offers daily for all alike Of course it is understood that we do not know the time of their release We know and believe that there is deliverance for such from their direful condition and that before the common resurrection and judgment but when we know not 86 Some Orthodox believe in a teaching of aerial toll houses for the souls of the dead According to this theory which is rejected by other Orthodox but appears in the hymnology of the church 90 following a person s death the soul leaves the body and is escorted to God by angels During this journey the soul passes through an aerial realm which is ruled by demons The soul encounters these demons at various points referred to as toll houses where the demons then attempt to accuse it of sin and if possible drag the soul into hell 91 Protestantism Edit Further information Criticism of the Catholic Church Criticism of purgatory In general Protestant churches reject the Catholic doctrine of purgatory although some teach the existence of an intermediate state Many Protestant denominations though not all teach the doctrine of sola scriptura scripture alone or prima scriptura scripture first The general Protestant view is that the Bible from which Protestants exclude deuterocanonical books such as 2 Maccabees contains no overt explicit discussion of purgatory and therefore it should be rejected as an unbiblical belief 92 Another view held by many Protestants such as the Lutheran Churches and the Reformed Churches is sola fide by faith alone that faith alone is what achieves salvation and that good works are merely evidence of that faith 93 Justification is generally seen as a discrete event that takes place once for all during one s lifetime not the result of a transformation of character However most Protestants teach that a transformation of character naturally follows the salvation experience others such as those of the Methodist tradition inclusive of the Holiness Movement teach that after justification Christians must pursue holiness and good works 94 95 Those who have been saved by God are destined for heaven while those have not been saved will be excluded from heaven 96 Some Protestants hold that a person enters into the fullness of one s bliss or torment only after the resurrection of the body and that the soul in that interim state is conscious and aware of the fate in store for it 97 Others have held that souls in the intermediate state between death and resurrection are without consciousness a state known as soul sleep 98 As an argument for the existence of purgatory Protestant religious philosopher Jerry L Walls 99 wrote Purgatory The Logic of Total Transformation 2012 He lists some biblical hints of purgatory Mal 3 2 2 Mac 12 41 43 Mat 12 32 1 Cor 3 12 that helped give rise to the doctrine 100 and finds its beginnings in early Christian writers whom he calls Fathers and Mothers of Purgatory 101 Citing Le Goff he sees the 12th century as that of the birth of purgatory arising as a natural development of certain currents of thought that had been flowing for centuries 102 and the 13th century at that of its rationalization purging it of its offensive popular trappings leading to its definition by a council as the church s doctrine in 1274 103 Walls does not base his belief in purgatory primarily on scripture the Mothers and Fathers of the Church or the magisterium doctrinal authority of the Catholic Church Rather his basic argument is that in a phrase he often uses it makes sense 104 For Walls purgatory has a logic as in the title of his book He documents the contrast between the satisfaction and sanctification models of purgatory In the satisfaction model the punishment of purgatory is to satisfy God s justice In the sanctification model Wall writes Purgatory might be pictured as a regimen to regain one s spiritual health and get back into moral shape 105 In Catholic theology Walls finds that the doctrine of purgatory has swung between the poles of satisfaction and sanctification sometimes combining both elements somewhere in the middle He believes the sanctification model can be affirmed by Protestants without in any way contradicting their theology and that they may find that it makes better sense of how the remains of sin are purged than an instantaneous cleansing at the moment of death 106 While purgatory was disputed by the Reformers some early patristic theologians of the Eastern Church taught and believed in apocatastasis the belief that all creation would be restored to its original perfect condition after a remedial purgatorial reformation Clement of Alexandria was one of the early church theologians who taught this view Protestants have always contended that there are no second chances However for Lutherans a similar doctrine of what may happen to the unevangelized is expressed in the book titled What about those who never heard 107 The reality of purgatorial purification is envisaged in Thomas Talbott s The Inescapable Love of God 108 Different views are expressed by different theologians in two different editions of Four Views of Hell 109 Anglicanism Edit Anglicans as with other Reformed Churches historically teach that the saved undergo the process of glorification after death 110 This process has been compared by Jerry L Walls and James B Gould with the process of purification in the core doctrine of purgatory see Reformed below Purgatory was addressed by both of the foundation features of Anglicanism in the 16th century the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer 111 Article XXII of the Thirty Nine Articles states that The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God 112 Prayers for the departed were deleted from the 1552 Book of Common Prayer because they suggested a doctrine of purgatory The 19th century Anglo Catholic revival led to restoring prayers for the dead 113 John Henry Newman in his Tract XC of 1841 6 discussed Article XXII He highlighted the fact that it is the Romish doctrine of purgatory coupled with indulgences that Article XXII condemns as repugnant to the Word of God The article did not condemn every doctrine of purgatory and it did not condemn prayers for the dead 114 As of the year 2000 the state of the doctrine of purgatory in Anglicanism was summarized as follows Purgatory is seldom mentioned in Anglican descriptions or speculations concerning life after death although many Anglicans believe in a continuing process of growth and development after death 115 Anglican Bishop John Henry Hobart 1775 1830 wrote that Hades or the place of the dead is represented as a spacious receptacle with gates through which the dead enter 116 The Anglican Catechist of 1855 elaborated on Hades stating that it is an intermediate state between death and the resurrection in which the soul does not sleep in unconsciousness but exists in happiness or misery till the resurrection when it shall be reunited to the body and receive its final reward 117 This intermediate state includes both Paradise and Gehenna but with an impassable gulf between the two 16 Souls remain in Hades until the Final Judgment and Christians may also improve in holiness after death during the middle state before the final judgment 118 Leonel L Mitchell 1930 2012 offers this rationale for prayers for the dead No one is ready at the time of death to enter into life in the nearer presence of God without substantial growth precisely in love knowledge and service and the prayer also recognizes that God will provide what is necessary for us to enter that state This growth will presumably be between death and resurrection 119 Anglican theologian C S Lewis 1898 1963 reflecting on the history of the doctrine of purgatory in the Anglican Communion said there were good reasons for casting doubt on the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory as that Romish doctrine had then become not merely a commercial scandal but also the picture in which the souls are tormented by devils whose presence is more horrible and grievous to us than is the pain itself and where the spirit who suffers the tortures cannot for pain remember God as he ought to do Lewis believed instead in purgatory as presented in John Henry Newman s The Dream of Gerontius By this poem Lewis wrote Religion has reclaimed Purgatory a process of purification that will normally involve suffering 120 Lewis s allegory The Great Divorce 1945 considered a version of purgatory in the related idea of a refrigidarium the opportunity for souls to visit a lower region of heaven and choose to be saved or not Lutheranism EditThe Protestant Reformer Martin Luther was once recorded as saying 121 As for purgatory no place in Scripture makes mention thereof neither must we any way allow it for it darkens and undervalues the grace benefits and merits of our blessed sweet Saviour Christ Jesus The bounds of purgatory extend not beyond this world for here in this life the upright good and godly Christians are well and soundly scoured and purged In his 1537 Smalcald Articles Luther stated 122 Therefore purgatory and every solemnity rite and commerce connected with it is to be regarded as nothing but a specter of the devil For it conflicts with the chief article which teaches that only Christ and not the works of men are to help set free souls Not to mention the fact that nothing has been divinely commanded or enjoined upon us concerning the dead With respect to the related practice of praying for the dead Luther stated 123 As for the dead since Scripture gives us no information on the subject I regard it as no sin to pray with free devotion in this or some similar fashion Dear God if this soul is in a condition accessible to mercy be thou gracious to it And when this has been done once or twice let it suffice Confession Concerning Christ s Supper Vol XXXVII 369 123 A core statement of Lutheran doctrine from the Book of Concord states 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 Epiphanius of Salamis testifies that Aerius of Sebaste held that prayers for the dead are useless With this he finds fault Neither do we favor Aerius but we do argue with you because you defend a heresy that clearly conflicts with the prophets apostles and Holy Fathers namely that the Mass justifies ex opere operato that it merits the remission of guilt and punishment even for the unjust to whom it is applied if they do not present an obstacle Philipp Melanchthon Apology of the Augsburg Confession 124 High Church Lutheranism like Anglo Catholicism is more likely to accept some form of purgatory citation needed Lutheran Reformer Mikael Agricola still believed in the basic beliefs of purgatory 125 Purgatory as such is not mentioned at all in the Augsburg Confession which claims that our churches dissent in no article of the faith from the Church Catholic but only omit some abuses which are new 126 Methodism Edit Further information Last Judgment Methodist churches in keeping with Article XIV Of Purgatory in the Articles of Religion hold that the Romish doctrine concerning purgatory is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture but repugnant to the Word of God 127 However in the Methodist Church there is a belief in Hades the intermediate state of souls between death and the general resurrection which is divided into Paradise for the righteous and Gehenna for the wicked 128 129 After the general judgment Hades will be abolished 129 John Wesley the founder of Methodism made a distinction between hell the receptacle of the damned and Hades the receptacle of all separate spirits and also between paradise the antechamber of heaven and heaven itself 130 131 The dead will remain in Hades until the Day of Judgment when we will all be bodily resurrected and stand before Christ as our Judge After the Judgment the Righteous will go to their eternal reward in Heaven and the Accursed will depart to Hell see Matthew 25 132 Reformed Edit Main article Glorification Reformed Churches After death Reformed theology teaches that through glorification God not only delivers His people from all their suffering and from death but delivers them too from all their sins 19 In glorification Reformed Christians believe that the departed are raised and made like the glorious body of Christ 19 Reformed theologian John F MacArthur has written that nothing in Scripture even hints at the notion of purgatory and nothing indicates that our glorification will in any way be painful 133 Jerry L Walls and James B Gould have likened the glorification process to the core or sanctification view of purgatory 134 Grace is much more than forgiveness it is also transformation and sanctification and finally glorification We need more than forgiveness and justification to purge our sinful dispositions and make us fully ready for heaven Purgatory is nothing more than the continuation of the sanctifying grace we need for as long as necessary to complete the job 135 Latter day Saint Movement Edit Main articles Spirit world Latter Day Saints plan of salvation Latter Day Saints and Mormon cosmology The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints teaches of an intermediate place for spirits between their death and their bodily resurrection This place called the spirit world includes paradise for the righteous and prison for those who do not know God Spirits in paradise serve as missionaries to the spirits in prison who can still accept salvation In this sense spirit prison can be conceptualized as a type of purgatory In addition to hearing the message from the missionary spirits the spirits in prison can also accept posthumous baptism and other posthumous ordinances performed by living church members in temples on Earth This is frequently referred to as baptism for the dead and temple work 136 Members of the church believe that during the three days following Christ s crucifixion he organized spirits in paradise and commissioned them to preach to the spirits in prison 137 Judaism EditIn Judaism Gehenna is a place of purification where according to some traditions most sinners spend up to a year before release The view of purgatory can be found in the teaching of the Shammaites In the last judgment day there shall be three classes of souls the righteous shall at once be written down for the life everlasting the wicked for Gehenna but those whose virtues and sins counterbalance one another shall go down to Gehenna and float up and down until they rise purified for of them it is said I will bring the third part into the fire and refine them as silver is refined and try them as gold is tried Zech xiii 9 also He the Lord bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up again I Sam ii 6 The Hillelites seem to have had no purgatory for they said He who is plenteous in mercy Ex xxxiv 6 inclines the balance toward mercy and consequently the intermediates do not descend into Gehenna Tosef Sanh xiii 3 R H 16b Bacher Ag Tan i 18 Still they also speak of an intermediate state Regarding the time which purgatory lasts the accepted opinion of R Akiba is twelve months according to R Johanan b Nuri it is only forty nine days Both opinions are based upon Isa lxvi 23 24 From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before Me and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me for their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched the former interpreting the words from one new moon to another to signify all the months of a year the latter interpreting the words from one Sabbath to another in accordance with Lev xxiii 15 16 to signify seven weeks During the twelve months declares the baraita Tosef Sanh xiii 4 5 R H 16b the souls of the wicked are judged and after these twelve months are over they are consumed and transformed into ashes under the feet of the righteous according to Mal iii 21 A V iv 3 whereas the great seducers and blasphemers are to undergo eternal tortures in Gehenna without cessation according to Isa lxvi 24 The righteous however and according to some also the sinners among the people of Israel for whom Abraham intercedes because they bear the Abrahamic sign of the covenant are not harmed by the fire of Gehenna even when they are required to pass through the intermediate state of purgatory Er 19b Ḥag 27a 138 Maimonides declares in his 13 principles of faith that the descriptions of Gehenna as a place of punishment in rabbinic literature were pedagocically motivated inventions to encourage respect of the Torah commandments by mankind which had been regarded as immature 139 Instead of being sent to Gehenna the souls of the wicked would actually get annihilated 140 Islam EditSee also Araf Islam Jahannam refers to both the entirety of hell as well as to its upper most layer 141 142 Jahannam has been conceptualized as a temporary place for Muslim sinners Unlike the rest of hell when the last Muslim sinner repented Jahannam would cease to exist 143 Some scholars asserted by referring to God s mercy r raḥmani r raḥimi that hell will eventually end This doctrine is referred to as fana al nar annihilation of fire proposed by scholars such as ibn Taimiyya However this doctrine is not universally accepted in Islam and rejected by the majority 144 Indian religions EditIndian religions believe in purification of the soul in Naraka citation needed Zoroastrianism EditAccording to Zoroastrian eschatology the wicked will get purified in molten metal 145 Mandaeism EditIn Mandaean cosmology the soul must go through multiple maṭarta i e purgatories watch stations or toll stations after death before finally reaching the World of Light heaven 146 The Mandaeans believe in purification of souls inside of Leviathan 147 whom they also call Ur 148 See also EditAerial toll house Anima Sola Araf Dante s Purgatorio Future probation Christian views on Hades Heaven in Christianity History of purgatory Jewish eschatology Life review Matarta Paradise Penance Sheol Spirit world Latter Day Saints Spirits in prisonReferences Edit Purgatory Oxford English Dictionary purgatory Archived 2019 01 05 at the Wayback Machine Merriam Webster Dictionary Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030 1031 Archived from the original on 22 February 2019 Retrieved 8 March 2019 Purgatory Summary Class 12 Mero Notice 2021 03 11 Retrieved 2021 03 12 a b c d e Purgatory Archived 2007 06 10 at the Wayback Machine in Encyclopaedia Britannica purgatory definition English definition dictionary Reverso dictionary reverso net Archived from the original on 2007 09 12 Retrieved 2007 12 20 a place or condition of suffering or torment esp one that is temporary a b LeGoff Jacques The Birth of Purgatory Trans Arthur Goldhammer Chicago U of Chicago P 1986 pp 362 366 Robert Osei Bonsu Purgatory A Study of the Historical Development and Its Compatibility with the Biblical Teaching on the Afterlife in Philosophy Study ISSN 2159 5313 April 2012 Vol 2 No 4 p 291 Karen Hartnup On the Beliefs of the Greeks Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy Brill 2004 p 2008 Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030 1031 Archived from the original on 22 February 2019 Retrieved 8 March 2019 a b c 4 August 1999 John Paul II www vatican va Archived from the original on 31 May 2014 Retrieved 15 March 2020 a b Saint Catherine of Genoa Archived 2021 03 09 at the Wayback Machine Benedict XVI General Audience January 12 2011 accessed May 15 2018 Articles of Religion article XXII Archived from the original on 2019 02 27 Retrieved 2019 02 26 Gould James B 4 August 2016 Understanding Prayer for the Dead Its Foundation in History and Logic Wipf and Stock Publishers pp 57 58 ISBN 9781620329887 The Roman Catholic and English Methodist churches both pray for the dead Their consensus statement confirms that over the centuries in the Catholic tradition praying for the dead has developed into a variety of practices especially through the Mass The Methodist church has prayers for the dead Methodists who pray for the dead thereby commend them to the continuing mercy of God Jerry L Walls 2012 Purgatory The Logic of Total Transformation Oxford University Press p 61 ISBN 9780199732296 Archived from the original on 2020 04 21 Retrieved 2017 08 05 a b Cook Joseph 1883 Advanced thought in Europe Asia Australia amp c London Richard D Dickinson p 41 Retrieved 10 April 2014 Anglican orthodoxy without protest has allowed high authorities to teach that there is an intermediate state Hades including both Gehenna and Paradise but with an impassable gulf between the two Gould James B 4 August 2016 Understanding Prayer for the Dead Its Foundation in History and Logic Wipf and Stock Publishers p 50 ISBN 9781532606014 Olivier Clement L Eglise orthodoxe Presses Universitaires de France 2006 Section 3 IV a b c Glorification Protestant Reformed Churches in America Archived from the original on 1 June 2019 Retrieved 23 May 2019 Browse by Subject Archived from the original on 2008 01 13 Retrieved 2007 12 23 Cassell s Latin Dictionary Marchant J R V amp Charles Joseph F Eds Revised Edition 1928 p 456 Megan McLaughlin Consorting with Saints 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Turnbull Kern Newman the Theologian University of Notre Dame Press 1990 ISBN 9780268014698 p 149 He was received into the Catholic Church on 9 October of the same year John Henry Newman An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine chapter 2 section 3 paragraph 2 Denzinger The Sources of Catholic Dogma Enchiridion Symbolorum 456 464 693 840 983 998 Catechism of the Catholic Church IntraText www vatican va 1030 32 Archived from the original on 2020 03 01 Retrieved 2020 05 12 Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030 1031 www vatican va Archived from the original on 2020 03 01 Retrieved 2020 03 15 Denzinger Archived 2019 04 11 at the Wayback Machine 856 original text in Latin Quod si vere paenitentes Archived 2021 02 24 at the Wayback Machine First speech by Mark Archbishop of Ephesus on the purifying fire in Patrologia Orientalis vol 15 pp 40 41 Denzinger Archived 2019 01 08 at the Wayback Machine 1304 original text in Latin Item si vere paenitentes Archived 2007 10 18 at the Wayback 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Retrieved 2020 03 15 Jack Mulder Kierkegaard and the Catholic Tradition Conflict and Dialogue Indiana University Press 2010 Archived 2015 05 14 at the Wayback Machine ISBN 978 0 25335536 2 pp 182 183 Quoted in Benedict J Groeschel A Still Small Voice Ignatius Press 1993 Archived 2015 05 14 at the Wayback Machine ISBN 978 0 89870436 5 Catechism of the Catholic Church 1475 Archived from the original on 2013 03 06 Retrieved 2020 03 15 Catechism of the Catholic Church 1478 Archived from the original on 2013 03 06 Retrieved 2020 03 15 Paul J Griffiths 2010 Purgatory In Jerry L Walls ed The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology Oxford University Press p 436 ISBN 9780199742486 Archived from the original on 2021 03 12 Retrieved 2020 10 19 Joseph Ratzinger 2007 Eschatology Death and Eternal Life CUA Press p 230 ISBN 9780813215167 First Speech by Mark Archbishop of Ephesus on Purifying Fire in Patrologia Orientalis vol 15 pp 40 41 Treaty of Brest Article 5 Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 12 26 a b Catholic Encyclopedia Purgatory www newadvent org Archived from the original on 2005 09 04 Retrieved 2005 09 11 Catechism of the Catholic Church 1031 Archived from the original on 2020 03 01 Retrieved 2020 03 15 1 Corinthians 3 15 1 Peter 1 7 Zechariah 13 9 Sperber Daniel 1999 Daniel Sperber Why Jews Do what They Do The History of Jewish Customs Throughout the Cycle of the Jewish Year KTAV 1999 p 149 ISBN 9780881256048 Archived from the original on 2021 03 12 Retrieved 2019 01 02 Edward P Saunders Do we know what happens in Purgatory Is there really a fire 21 May 2013 Archived from the original on 2019 01 03 Retrieved 2019 01 02 Smith Scott Where is Purgatory in the Bible All Roads Lead to Rome Archived from the original on 26 November 2020 Retrieved 6 January 2021 Origen Homily 16 in Homilies on Jeremiah and 1 Kings 28 CUA Press 1998 pp 173 174 original text Patrologia graeca vol 13 col 415 C D Migne Jacques Paul 1862 Homily VI on Exodus section 4 Patrologia graeca vol 12 col 334 335 Archived from the original on 2016 05 03 Retrieved 2015 12 12 St Augustine Enchiridion On Faith Hope and Love 1955 English translation Gregory the Great Dialogues book IV chapter 39 PDF Archived PDF from the original on 2013 05 24 Retrieved 2012 11 15 Gregory the Great Dialogues 1911 Book 4 Pp 177 258 When he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter and the propensity to evil Gregory of Nyssa Sermon on the Dead pp 13 445 448 Ramelli Ilaria 9 August 2013 Ilaria Ramelli The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena Brill 2013 p 374 ISBN 9789004245709 Archived from the original on 2019 01 03 Retrieved 2019 01 02 Summa Theologica appendix 2 article 2 Whether it is the same place where souls are cleansed and the damned punished Archived from the original on 2019 01 03 Retrieved 2019 01 02 Catholic Encyclopedia Hell www newadvent org Archived from the original on 2018 01 23 Retrieved 2007 12 20 Catholic Encyclopedia Purgatory www newadvent org Archived from the original on 2021 10 20 Retrieved 2021 11 15 Pope Benedict XVI General Audience of 12 January 2011 Archived from the original on 9 March 2021 Retrieved 15 January 2021 a b c d Encyclical Spe salvi Archived 2015 01 29 at the Wayback Machine 46 47 Jacques Le Goff The Birth of Purgatory University of Chicago Press 1986 pp 167 168 Catech Rom chap vi 1 Schouppe F X 1920 Chapter IV Purgatory illustrated by the lives and legends of the saints London Benziger Brothers p 5 Le Goff 1986 p 193 Station Island Creature and Creator 26 November 2019 Archived from the original on 2020 09 18 Retrieved 22 April 2022 MacTreinfhir N 1986 The Todi Fresco and St Patrick s Purgatory Lough Derg Clogher Record 12 141 158 Fabio Gambaro L invenzione del purgatorio in La Repubblica 27 September 2005 Archived from the original on 19 November 2018 Retrieved 3 January 2019 Death the Threshold to Eternal Life Liturgy amp Worship Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America www goarch org Archived from the original on 2010 06 12 Retrieved 2011 01 20 John Meyendorff Byzantine Theology London Mowbrays 1974 pp 220 221 At death man s body goes to the earth from which it was taken and the soul being immortal goes to God who gave it The souls of men being conscious and exercising all their faculties immediately after death are judged by God This judgment following man s death we call the Particular Judgment The final reward of men however we believe will take place at the time of the General Judgment During the time between the Particular and the General Judgment which is called the Intermediate State the souls of men have foretaste of their blessing or punishment The Orthodox Faith Archived 2007 12 18 at the Wayback Machine Michael Azkoul What Are the Differences Between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism Archived 2004 06 03 at the Wayback Machine Ted A Campbell Christian Confessions a Historical Introduction Westminster John Knox Press 1996 ISBN 0 664 25650 3 p 54 a b Dennis Bratcher ed The Confession of Dositheus Archived from the original on 2009 02 21 Decree 18 Catechism of St Philaret of Moscow Archived 2007 07 03 at the Wayback Machine 372 and 376 Constas H Demetry Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox Church Archived 2006 06 15 at the Wayback Machine p 37 John Meyendorff Byzantine Theology London Mowbrays 1974 p 96 cf The Orthodox party remarked that the words quoted from the book of Maccabees and our Saviour s words can only prove that some sins will be forgiven after death OrthodoxInfo com The Orthodox Response to the Latin Doctrine of Purgatory Archived 2005 11 09 at the Wayback Machine What Are the Differences Between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism Archived 2004 06 03 at the Wayback Machine Constas H Demetry Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox Church Archived 2006 06 15 at the Wayback Machine p 37 Orthodox Confession of Faith questions 64 66 In both the Greek and Slavonic Euchologion in the canon for the departure of the soul by St Andrew we find in Ode 7 All holy angels of the Almighty God have mercy upon me and save me from all the evil toll houses Evidence for the Tradition of the Toll Houses found in the Universally Received Tradition of the Church Archived 2010 11 26 at the Wayback Machine When my soul is about to be forcibly parted from my body s limbs then stand by my side and scatter the counsels of my bodiless foes and smash the teeth of those who implacably seek to swallow me down so that I may pass unhindered through the rulers of darkness who wait in the air O Bride of God Octoechos Tone Two Friday Vespers Archived 2014 04 22 at the Wayback Machine Pilot my wretched soul pure Virgin and have compassion on it as it slides under a multitude of offences into the deep of destruction and at the fearful hour of death snatch me from the accusing demons and from every punishment Ode 6 Tone 1 Midnight Office for Sunday Archived 2014 04 22 at the Wayback Machine Saint Luke the Evangelist Orthodox Church is a Chicago Parish of the Orthodox Church in America located in Palos Hills Illinois www stlukeorthodox com Archived from the original on 2016 11 06 Retrieved 2007 12 20 Robert L Millet By what Authority The Vital Question of Religious Authority in Christianity Mercer University 2010 66 Alan Richardson John Bowden eds The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology Westminster John Knox 1983 s v sola fide 545 Jones Scott J 2002 United Methodist Doctrine Abingdon Press p 190 ISBN 9780687034857 Faith is necessary to salvation unconditionally Good works are necessary only conditionally that is if there is time and opportunity The thief on the cross in Luke 23 39 43 is Wesley s example of this He believed in Christ and was told Truly I tell you today you will be with me in Paradise This would be impossible if the good works that are the fruit of genuine repentance and faith were unconditionally necessary for salvation The man was dying and lacked time his movements were confined and he lacked opportunity In his case faith alone was necessary However for the vast majority of human beings good works are necessary for continuance in faith because those persons have both the time and opportunity for them Brown Dr Allan 1 June 2008 Questions About Entire Sanctification God s Bible School amp College Archived from the original on 27 March 2019 Retrieved 27 March 2019 A Christian must continue to walk in all the light he or she has or become guilty of walking in darkness which is willful sin A person practicing willful sin is not saved 1 John 2 3 6 3 4 10 Alan Richardson John Bowden eds The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology Westminster John Knox 1983 s v salvation 519 John Calvin wrote As long as our spirit is in the body it exerts its own powers but when it quits this prison house it returns to God whose presence it meanwhile enjoys while it rests in the hope of a blessed Resurrection This rest is its paradise On the other hand the spirit of the reprobate while it waits for the dreadful judgment is tortured by that anticipation Psychopannychia by John Calvin Archived 2008 10 25 at the Wayback Machine Martin Luther contending against the doctrine of purgatory spoke of the souls of the dead as quite asleep but this notion of unconscious soul sleep is not included in the Lutheran Confessions and Lutheran theologians generally reject it See Soul Sleep Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Archived 2009 06 28 at the Wayback Machine Jerry Walls PhD HBU edu Archived from the original on 2015 05 03 Jerry L Walls Purgatory The Logic of Total Transformation Oxford University Press 2012 pp 11 13 Walls 2012 pp 14 17 Walls 2012 pp 17 22 Walls 2012 pp 22 24 For example Walls 2012 p 71 Walls 2012 pp 76 90 Walls 2012 p 90 Gabriel Fackre Ronald H Nash John Sanders What About Those Who Have Never Heard Three Views on the Destiny of the Unevangelized InterVarsity Press 2009 Talbott Thomas 17 November 2014 Thomas Talbott The Inescapable Love of God Wipf and Stock 2014 pp 97 98 ISBN 9781630876746 Archived from the original on 2021 03 12 Retrieved 2019 05 20 John F Walvoord Zachary J Hayes Clark H Pinnock William Crockett Four Views of Hell Zondervan 2010 Archived 2021 03 12 at the Wayback Machine Denny Burk John G Stackhouse Jr Robin Parry Jerry Walls Preston Sprinkle Stanley N Gundry Four Views of Hell Zondervan 2016 Archived 2021 03 12 at the Wayback Machine Knutsen Karen Patrick 2010 Reciprocal Haunting Pat Barker s Regeneration Trilogy Waxmann Verlag ISBN 9783830972952 In the Ordo Salutis Order of Salvation of the Anglican faith the soul must first be regenerated before it can be resurrected or glorified in Christ The Order of Salvation involves a number of steps said to lead to man s salvation and glorification or resurrection in Christ In the Anglican Church the Order of Salvation is officially Calvinistsic placing regeneration before faith Colin Buchanan Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism Scarecrow 2006 510 Join us in Daily Prayer Colin Buchanan Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism Scarecrow 2006 s v Petitions for the Departed 356 357 REMARKS ON CERTAIN PASSAGES IN THE THIRTY NINE ARTICLES Archived 2015 02 25 at the Wayback Machine Don S Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum eds An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church Church Publishing 2000 427 Hobart John Henry 1825 The State of the Departed New York T and J Swords p 32 Holden George 1855 The Anglican Catechist Manual of Instruction Preparatory to Confirmation London Joseph Masters p 40 We are further taught by it that there is an intermediate state between death and the resurrection in which the soul does not sleep in unconsciousness but exists in happiness or misery till the resurrection when it shall be reunited to the body and receive its final reward Shields Charles Woodruff 2009 05 01 1888 some Anglican divines inauthor Shields amp pg PA184 Philosophia Ultima Applewood Books p 184 ISBN 9781429019644 Archived from the original on 2021 03 12 Retrieved 2021 03 12 Some Anglican divines from like premises have surmised that Christians may also improve in holiness after death during the middle state before the final judgment Leonel L Mitchell Praying Shapes Believing A Theological Commentary on The Book of Common Prayer Church Publishing 1991 224 C S Lewis Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer Archived 2018 01 19 at the Wayback Machine Mariner Books 2002 108 109 The Table Talk Or Familiar Discourse of Martin Luther Archived 2021 03 12 at the Wayback Machine 1848 page 226 Smalcald Articles Part II Article II Of the Mass Archived 2008 10 10 at the Wayback Machine a b Raynor Shane 14 October 2015 Should Christians pray for the dead Ministry Matters Archived from the original on 27 March 2019 Retrieved 27 March 2019 Apology XXIV 96 Archived from the original on 2015 10 26 Retrieved 2018 04 01 Martti Parvio Mikael Agricolan kasitys kiirastulesta ja votiivimessuista Pentti Laasonen ed Investigatio memoriae patrum Libellus in honorem Kauko Pirinen SKHST 93 Rauma 1975 The Augsburg Confession Archived from the original on 2019 06 02 Retrieved 2019 06 02 The Twenty Five Articles of Religion Methodist CRI Voice Institute Archived from the original on 2017 12 18 Retrieved 2009 04 11 Withington John Swann 1878 The United Methodist Free Churches Magazine London Thomas Newton p 685 The country is called Hades That portion of it which is occupied by the good is called Paradise and that province which is occupied by the wicked is called Gehenna a b Smithson William T 1859 The Methodist Pulpit H Polkinhornprinter p 363 Besides continues our critical authority we have another clear proof from the New Testament that hades denotes the intermediate state of souls between death and the general resurrection In Revelations xx 14 we read that death and hades by our translators rendered hell as usual shall immediately after the general judgment be cast into the lake of fire this is the second death In other words the death which consists in the separation of soul and body and the receptacle of disembodied spirits shall be no more Hades shall be emptied death abolished Yrigoyen Charles Jr Warrick Susan E 16 March 2005 Historical Dictionary of Methodism Scarecrow Press p 107 ISBN 9780810865464 Considering the question of death and the intermediate state John Wesley affirmed the immortality of the soul as well as the future resurrection of the body denied the reality of purgatory and made a distinction between hell the receptacle of the damned and hades the receptacle of all separate spirits and also between paradise the antechamber of heaven and heaven itself Karen B Westerfield Tucker 8 March 2001 American Methodist Worship Oxford University Press p 202 ISBN 9780198029267 Archived from the original on 4 July 2014 Retrieved 10 April 2014 Decisions made during life were therefore inseparably connected to what came after life Upon death according to Wesley the souls of the deceased would enter an intermediate penultimate state in which they would remain until reunited with the body at the resurrection of the dead In that state variously identified as the ante chamber of heaven Abraham s bosom and paradise Swartz Alan 20 April 2009 United Methodists and the Last Days Hermeneutic Archived from the original on 11 April 2012 Wesley believed that when we die we will go to an Intermediate State Paradise for the Righteous and Hades for the Accursed We will remain there until the Day of Judgment when we will all be bodily resurrected and stand before Christ as our Judge After the Judgment the Righteous will go to their eternal reward in Heaven and the Accursed will depart to Hell see Matthew 25 Walls Jerry L 2002 Heaven The Logic of Eternal Joy Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199880553 Gould James B 4 November 2016 James B Gould Practicing Prayer for the Dead Its Theological Meaning and Spiritual Value Wipf and Stock 2016 pp 73 76 ISBN 9781498284578 Archived from the original on 2021 03 12 Retrieved 2019 05 23 Jerry L Walls Purgatory The Logic of Total Transformation Oxford University Press 2012 p 174 Archived 2021 03 12 at the Wayback Machine cf Jerry L Walls Heaven The Logic of Eternal Joy Oxford University Press 2002 pp 53 62 Archived 2021 03 12 at the Wayback Machine and Jerry L Walls Purgatory for Everyone Archived 2019 03 30 at the Wayback Machine What Do Mormons Believe The God Makers www christiandataresources com Archived from the original on 2012 06 25 Retrieved 2012 10 10 Spirit Prison The Encyclopedia of Mormonism eom byu edu Archived from the original on 2018 04 02 Retrieved 2017 05 17 There are three categories of men the wholly pious and the arch sinners are not purified but only those between these two classes Jewish Encyclopedia Gehenna Archived 2007 11 12 at the Wayback Machine Maimonides Introduction to Perek Helek ed and transl by Maimonides Heritage Center pp 3 4 Maimonides Introduction to Perek Helek ed and transl by Maimonides Heritage Center pp 22 23 Gunther Sebastian Todd Lawson and Christian Mauder Roads to Paradise Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam 1 2017 2 Hamza Feras Temporary Hellfire Punishment and the Making of Sunni Orthodoxy Roads to Paradise Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam 2 vols Brill 2017 371 406 Gardet L D j ahannam in Encyclopaedia of Islam Second Edition Edited by P Bearman Th Bianquis C E Bosworth E van Donzel W P Heinrichs Consulted online on 18 January 2023 doi 10 1163 1573 3912 islam SIM 1930 First published online 2012 First print edition ISBN 9789004161214 1960 2007 Islamic Beliefs About the Afterlife ReligionFacts Archived from the original on 2017 05 09 Retrieved 2017 05 17 Eileen Gardiner 10 February 2006 About Zoroastrian Hell Archived from the original on 15 October 2008 Retrieved 10 October 2008 Aldihisi Sabah 2008 The story of creation in the Mandaean holy book in the Ginza Rba PhD University College London Das Johannesbuch der Mandaer ed and transl by Mark Lidzbarski part 2 Giessen 1915 pp 98 99 Hans Jonas The Gnostic Religion 3 ed Boston 2001 p 117 Further reading EditBaxter Roger 1823 Purgatory Meditations For Every Day In The Year New York Benziger Brothers pp 57 59 Berington Joseph 1830 Purgatory The Faith of Catholics confirmed by Scripture and attested by the Fathers of the five first centuries of the Church Volume 1 Jos Booker pp 354 374 Hunolt Franz 1897 Sermon 17 On Purgatory After Death Sermons on the four last things Death Judgment Hell and Heaven Benzinger Brothers Schouppe F X 1920 Part I Chapters I IV Purgatory illustrated by the lives and legends of the saints London Benziger Brothers Hanna Edward Joseph 1911 Purgatory In Herbermann Charles ed Catholic Encyclopedia Vol 12 New York Robert Appleton Company Vanhoutte Kristof K P and McCraw Benjamin W eds Purgatory Philosophical Dimensions Palgrave MacMillan 2017 Gould James B Understanding Prayer for the Dead Its Foundation in History and Logic Wipf and Stock Publishers 2016 Le Goff Jacques The Birth of Purgatory U of Chicago Press 1986 Pasulka Diana Walsh Heaven Can Wait Purgatory in Catholic Devotional and Popular Culture Oxford UP 2015 online review Tingle Elizabeth C Purgatory and Piety in Brittany 1480 1720 Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2013 Walls Jerry L 2012 Purgatory The Logic of Total Transformation Oxford UP ISBN 9780199732296 Purgatory at the Internet Archive by F X Schouppe 1893 London Burns amp Oates External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Purgatory Look up Purgatory in Wiktionary the free dictionary Is Purgatory in the Bible on Internet Archive Church Fathers on Purgatory Purgatory Encyclopaedia Britannica Online 2009 English c 1200 wall painting with an image of a ladder reminiscent of icons such as the Ladder of Divine Ascent which has been interpreted as a purgatorial ladder Quran Inspector Chapter 7 The Purgatory Al A araf سورة الأعراف at submission org Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Purgatory amp oldid 1150796893, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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