Image of a non-fiery purgatory (Gustave Doré: illustration for Dante's Purgatorio, Canto 24)
Purgatory is the condition of purification or temporary punishment[1] by which those who die in a state of grace are believed to be made ready for Heaven. This theological notion has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, but the poetic conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the creation of medieval Christian piety and imagination.[1]
The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church (in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites it is a doctrine, though often without using the name "Purgatory"); Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there."[2][3] The Eastern Orthodox Churches believe in the possibility of a change of situation for the souls of the dead through the prayers of the living and the offering of the Divine Liturgy,[4] and many Orthodox, especially among ascetics, hope and pray for a general apocatastasis.[5] A similar belief in at least the possibility of a final salvation for all is held by Mormonism.[6] Judaism also believes in the possibility of after-death purification[7] and may even use the word "purgatory" to present its understanding of the meaning of Gehenna.[8] However, the concept of soul "purification" may be explicitly denied in these other faith traditions.
The word "purgatory", derived through Anglo-Norman and Old French from the Latin word purgatorium,[9] has come to refer also to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation,[1] and is used, in a non-specific sense, to mean any place or condition of suffering or torment, especially one that is temporary.[10]
While use of the word "purgatory" (in Latin purgatorium) as a noun appeared perhaps only between 1160 and 1180, giving rise to the idea of purgatory as a place[11] (what Jacques Le Goff called the "birth" of purgatory),[12] the Roman Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional condition has a history that dates back, even before Jesus, to the worldwide practice of caring for the dead and praying for them, and to the belief, found also in Judaism,[13] from which Christianity grew, 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.[1] Roman Catholic belief in purgatory is based, among other reasons, on the previous Jewish practice of prayer for the dead,[14] a practice that presupposes that the dead are thereby assisted between death and their entry into their final abode.[1]
The English Roman Catholic scholar Cardinal 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".[15] Roman Catholics consider the teaching on purgatory to be part of the faith derived from the revelation of Jesus Christ that was preached by the apostles. Theologians and other Christians then developed the doctrine regarding purgatory over the centuries, leading to the definition of the formal doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church on the matter (as distinct from the legendary descriptions) at the Second Council of Lyon (1274), the Council of Florence (1438–1445), and the Council of Trent (1545–63).[1]
The views of Purgatory vary depending on Christian denomination. Some churches, typically those with a more Catholic structure, recognize the doctrine, while many Protestant churches reject it.
The Catholic Church gives the name Purgatory to the final purification of all who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified.[16] Though purgatory is often pictured as a place rather than a process of purification, the idea of purgatory as a place is not part of the Church's doctrine.[17]
A depiction of purgatory by Venezuelan painter
Cristóbal Rojas (1890) representing the boundary between heaven (above) and hell (below)
According to Catholic belief, immediately after death, a person undergoes judgment in which the soul's eternal destiny is specified.[18] Some are eternally united with God in Heaven, often envisioned as a paradise of eternal joy, where Theosis is completed and one experiences the beatific vision of God. Conversely, others reach a state called Hell, that is eternal separation from God often envisioned as a fiery place of punishment, though the fire is sometimes seen metaphorically.[19] It is stressed that it is by one's own free will that a person enters into the state of hell, separating themselves from God.[20]
In addition to accepting the states of heaven and hell, Catholicism envisages a third state before being admitted to heaven. According to Catholic doctrine, some souls are not sufficiently free from the temporal effects of sin and its consequences to enter the state of heaven immediately, nor are they so sinful as to be destined for hell either.[21] Such souls, ultimately destined to be united with God in heaven, must first endure purgatory – a state of purification.[22] In purgatory, souls "achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."[23] Temporal punishment and eternal punishment are incurred by mortal sin, but eternal punishment is remitted by the sacrament of reconciliation (known also as the sacrament of penance or confession). The remaining temporal punishment may be remitted by sufferings in this life, indulgences, or after death in Purgatory.
Catholics make a distinction between two types of sin.[24] Mortal sin is a "grave violation of God's law" that "turns man away from God",[25] and if it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell.[26] This teaching on the consequences of unrepented sin is based on both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
In contrast, venial sin (meaning "forgivable" sin) "does not set us in direct opposition to the will and friendship of God"[27] and, although still "constituting a moral disorder",[28] does not deprive the sinner of friendship with God, and consequently the eternal happiness of heaven.[27]
According to Catholicism, pardon of sins and purification can occur during life – for example, in the Sacrament of Baptism[29] and the Sacrament of Penance.[30] However, if this purification is not achieved in life, venial sins can still be purified after death.[31] The specific name given to this purification of sin after death is "purgatory".[32]
Purgatory is a cleansing that involves painful temporal punishment, associated with the idea of fire such as is associated with the idea of the eternal punishment of hell.[33] Several Church Fathers regarded 1 Corinthians 3:10–15 as evidence for the existence of an intermediate state in which the dross of lighter transgressions will be burnt away, and the soul thus purified will be saved.[33] Fire was the Bible-inspired image ("We went through fire and through water")[34] that Christians used for the notion of after-life purification.[35] St. Augustine described the fires of cleansing as more painful than anything a man can suffer in this life,[33] and Pope Gregory I wrote that there must be a cleansing fire for some minor faults that may remain to be purged away.[36] Origen wrote about the fire that needs to purify the soul[37]St. Gregory of Nyssa also wrote about the purging fire.[38]
Another image of
souls being purified by flames in purgatory
Most theologians of the past have held that the fire is in some sense a material fire, though of a nature different from ordinary fire, but the opinion of other theologians who interpret the Scriptural term "fire" metaphorically has not been condemned by the Church[39] and may now be the more common view. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of a "cleansing fire".[32] and quotes the expression "purgatorius ignis" (purifying fire) used by Pope Gregory the Great. It speaks of the temporal punishment for sin, even in this life, as a matter of "sufferings and trials of all kinds".[40] It describes purgatory as a necessary purification from "an unhealthy attachment to creatures", a purification that "frees one from what is called the 'temporal punishment' of sin", a punishment that "must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin."[41]
Whilst the imagery of pain and fire is often used to depict Purgatory, this does not mean that Purgatory is necessarily a 'sad' state for the soul.[citation needed] St Catherine of Genoa wrote a treatise on Purgatory in the late fifteenth century which focused upon the positive sense which a soul in purgatory would have, because the very nature of being in purgatory is a sign that the soul is on the way to be with God.[citation needed] Whilst St. Catherine's approach to Purgatory was clearly non-typical, in canonising her the Roman Catholic Church declared that there was nothing contrary to faith in her writings.[citation needed]
The Catholic Church teaches that the fate of those in purgatory can be affected by the actions of the living. Its teaching is based also on the practice of prayer for the dead mentioned as far back as 2 Maccabees 12:42–46, considered by Catholics and Orthodox to be part of Sacred Scripture.[43]
In the same context there is mention of the practice of indulgences. An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.[44] Indulgences may be obtained for oneself, or on behalf of the dead.[45]
Prayers for the dead and indulgences have been popularly envisioned as decreasing the "duration" of time the dead spend in purgatory, an idea associated with the fact that, in the past, indulgences were measured in terms of days, "quarantines" (i.e. 40-day periods as for Lent), or years, meaning, not that purgatory would be shortened by that amount of time, but that the indulgences were equivalent to that length of canonical penance on the part of a living Christian.[46] When the imposition of such canonical penances of a determinate duration fell out of custom these expressions were sometimes popularly misinterpreted as reduction of that much time of a soul's stay in purgatory.[46] A prayer roll that once belonged to Henry VIII[47] claimed that "this image of pity devotedly say 5 Pater Noster, 5 Ave Maria and 1 Credo..." gave a pardon and reduction of time in purgatory of "52,712 years and 40 days of pardon".[48] In Pope Paul VI's revision of the rules concerning indulgences, these expressions were dropped, and replaced by the expression "partial indulgence", indicating that the person who gained such an indulgence for a pious action is granted, "in addition to the remission of temporal punishment acquired by the action itself, an equal remission of punishment through the intervention of the Church"[49]
Historically, the practice of granting indulgences, and the widespread[50] associated abuses, led to them being seen as increasingly bound up with money, with criticisms being directed against the "sale" of indulgences, a source of controversy that was the immediate occasion of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and Switzerland.[51]
Dante gazes at purgatory (shown as a mountain) in this 16th-century painting.
The envisioning of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory as places in the physical universe was never a Church doctrine. Nonetheless, in antiquity and medieval times, Heaven and Hell were widely regarded as places existing within the physical universe: Heaven "above", in the sky; Hell "below", in or beneath the earth. Similarly, Purgatory has at times been thought of as a physical location.
In 1206, a peasant named Thurkhill in England claimed that Saint Julian took him on a tour of Purgatory. He gave precise details, including descriptions of Purgatory's torture chambers, and was widely believed, including by the Church historian Roger of Wendover.[52] In Dante's fourteenth century work The Divine Comedy, Purgatory is depicted as a mountain in the southern hemisphere. It is apparently the only land there. Souls given a second chance find themselves at Mt. Purgatory, where there are two levels, then Seven Levels representing the Seven deadly sins with ironic punishments. For example, on the first level for Pride the inhabitants are weighed down by huge stones which forces them to look at examples of Pride on the pavement like Arachne. When they reach the top they will find themselves at Jerusalem's antipode, the Garden of Eden itself. Thus cleansed of all sin and made perfect, they wait in Earthly paradise before ascending to Heaven.
In 1999 Pope John Paul II declared that the term Purgatory does not indicate a place, but "a condition of existence".[17]
In 2011 Pope Benedict XVI, speaking of Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510), said that in her time the purification of souls (Purgatory) was pictured as a location in space, but that the saint saw Purgatory as a purifying inner fire, such as she experienced in her profound sorrow for sins committed, when compared with God's infinite love. She said that being bound ill to the desires and suffering that derive from sin makes it impossible for the soul to enjoy the beatific vision of God. The Pope commented: "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."[53]
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, first published in 2005, is a summary in dialog form of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It deals with purgatory in the following exchange:[54]
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 1020–1032[55] and 1054[56] of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, which also speaks of purgatory in sections 1472 and 1473[57]
Other authoritative statements are those of the Council of Trent in 1563[58] and the Council of Florence in 1439.[59]
The Eastern Catholic churches are Catholic churches sui iuris of Eastern tradition, in full communion with the Pope. There are however some differences between the Latin Church and some of the Eastern Catholic Churches on aspects of purgatory. The Eastern Catholic Churches of Greek tradition do not generally use the word "purgatory", but agree that there is a "final purification" for souls destined for heaven, and that prayers can help the dead who are in that state of "final purification". In general, neither the members of the Latin Church nor the members of these Eastern Catholic Churches regard these differences as major points of dispute, but see them as minor nuances and differences of tradition. A treaty 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",[60] implying, in the opinion of a theologian of that Church, that both sides can agree to disagree on the specifics of what the West calls "purgatory", while there is full agreement on the essentials.[61] Between the Latin Church and some other Eastern Catholic Churches, such as the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, there is no disagreement about any aspect of the doctrine of purgatory.
The Eastern Orthodox Church came to admit of an intermediate state after death, but refrained from defining it so as not to blur the distinction between the alternative fates of Heaven and Hell; it combined with this doctrine a firm belief in the efficacy of prayer for the dead, which was a constant feature of both East and West liturgies. Such prayer is held to be unintelligible without belief in some interim state in which the dead might benefit.[62]
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 purgatoral punishment. Both purgatory and indulgences are inter-corrolated 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.[63]
Eastern Orthodox teaching is that, while all undergo a Particular Judgment immediately after death, neither the just nor the wicked attain the final state of bliss or punishment before the last day,[64] with some exceptions for righteous souls like the Theotokos (Blessed Virgin Mary), "who was borne by the angels directly to heaven".[65]
The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that it is necessary to believe in an intermediate after-death state in which believers are perfected and brought to full divinization, a process of growth rather than of punishment, which some Orthodox have called purgatory.[66] 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".[67] 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."[68]
The state in which souls undergo this experience is often referred to as "Hades".[69]
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. But, 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).".[4]
The Eastern Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem (1672) declared that "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."[67]
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,[70] "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."[71]
The Anglican Communion, as well as many Continuing Anglican churches, reject the doctrine of purgatory, with the exception of Anglo-Catholics.[72] Article XXII of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of the Anglican Church 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."[73] Nevertheless, among Anglo-Catholics, who often identify strongly with Roman Catholic liturgy and theology, there are those who accept that purgatory exists. C. S. Lewis said there were good reasons for "casting doubt on the 'Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory' as that Romish doctrine had then become", not merely "the commercial scandal" but also the picture of purgatory as a temporary Hell, 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". He believed instead in purgatory as presented in John Henry Newman's The Dream of Gerontius,[74] of which he wrote: "Religion has reclaimed Purgatory", a process of purification that will normally involve suffering.[75][76]
In general, Protestant churches do not accept the doctrine of purgatory. One of Protestantism's central tenets is sola scriptura ("scripture alone"). 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.[77]
Another tenet of Protestantism is sola fide ("by faith alone"): that faith alone, apart from any action, is what achieves salvation, and that good works are merely evidence of that faith. Salvation is generally seen as a discrete event that takes place once for all during one's lifetime, and does not require any immediate transformation of character. However, most Protestants teach that a transformation of character will naturally follow the salvation experience. Instead of distinguishing between mortal and venial sins, Protestants believe that one's faith dictates one's state of salvation and one's place in the afterlife. Those who have been saved by God are destined for heaven, while those have not been saved will be excluded from heaven. Accordingly, they reject any notion of a provisional or temporary afterlife state such as purgatory.
Some Protestants hold that a person enters into the fullness of its 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.[78] Others have held that souls in the intermediate state between death and resurrection are without consciousness, a state known as soul sleep.[79]
Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran Church, believed that it was of no avail to pray for the dead.[80] Nonetheless, 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 testifies that Aerius 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).[81] The Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, however, believes in the doctrine of purgatory, as well as papal infallibility and all Roman Catholic dogma.
Methodist churches 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."[82] Its founder John Wesley believed that there is "an intermediate state between death and the final judgment, where those who rejected Christ would be aware of their coming doom (not yet pronounced),[83] and believers would share in the 'bosom of Abraham' or 'paradise', even continuing to grow in holiness there."[2][3] Methodism does not formally affirm this belief, but maintains silence on what lies between death and the last judgment.[83] It also views the manner of Christ's presence in Holy Communion as a holy mystery, but in this case affirms the reality of the presence.[84]
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).[85]
In Islam also, Muslims believe hell is a temporary place of punishment for some, eternal for others. Sinning believers who end up in Hell will stay temporarily but eventually will be removed and admitted into Paradise, and those who reject Allah (Arabic for God)[86] will remain in Hell eternally.[87] Chapter Al-A'raf of the Quran speaks more specifically about this.
Barzakh (Arabic: برزخ), a term that appears in the Qur'an Surah 23, Ayat 100, is the intermediate state in which the soul of the deceased is transferred across the boundaries of the mortal realm into a kind of "cold sleep" where the soul will rest until the Qiyamah (Judgement Day). This concept corresponds to that of soul sleep, not to that of purgatory.[88]
The life review undergone by those who have had a Near Death Experience (NDE), can resemble a sort of purgatory. This is what Bruce Horacek Ph.D and the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) write about the Life Review: "During a predominantly pleasurable NDE, usually while in the light, the NDEr may experience a life review. In this review, the NDEr typically re-views (sees again) and re-experiences every moment of his/her life. At the same time, the NDEr fully experiences being every other person with whom the NDEr interacted. The NDEr knows what it was to be on the receiving end of his/her own actions including those that caused others pain. At this time, the NDEr usually reports feeling profound remorse, along with extreme regret that the harm cannot be undone. At the same time, the NDEr typically reports feelings consistent with unconditional love from the light, which communicates forgiveness because the NDEr was still learning how to become a more loving person. NDErs tend to say that this "learning how to love" is the purpose of life."[89] In Richard Matheson's novel What Dreams May Come, a newly dead character sees all the events of his life unfold in reverse, then later experiences the same thing slowly, in a self-evaluation process that the novel equates with purgatory.
Literary references to purgatory go back at least as far as Dante Alighieri. In his Divine Comedy story Purgatorio, Mount Purgatory is split into different terraces for those being made to be ready for heaven. At the top of Mount Purgatory is the Garden of Eden.
In the 1991 film Defending Your Life, Judgement City is a purgatory-like waiting area for the recently deceased waiting to be judged.
Purgatory is mentioned in many television shows, including The Sopranos, Lost, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Fringe and Supernatural.
In the South Park episode "Dead Celebrities", the experience of waiting for an airplane to take off while on the runway is referred to as purgatory.
In the 1999 film Purgatory by Uli Edel, a band of outlaws find themselves in the town of Refuge, which is really Purgatory.
- ^ a b c d e f Encyclopaedia Britannica: Purgatory in world religions: "The idea of purification or temporary punishment after death has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature. The conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the achievement of medieval Christian piety and imagination."
- ^ a b "What happens after a person dies?". The United Methodist Church. http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=4746355&content_id={94F6F768-0EA6-4C1B-B6B6-0C88EC04E8A2}¬oc=1. Retrieved 10 March 2011. "Purgatory is believed to be a place where the souls of the faithful dead endure a period of purification and cleansing, aided by the prayers of the living, prior to their entrance into heaven. Although John Wesley believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment, that idea is not formally affirmed in Methodist doctrine, which “reject the idea of purgatory but beyond that maintain silence on what lies between death and the last judgment.” (Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials by Ted A. Campbell)"
- ^ a b Robin Russell. "Heavenly minded: It’s time to get our eschatology right, say scholars, authors". UM Portal. http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5101. Retrieved 10 March 2011. "John Wesley believed in the intermediate state between death and the final judgment “where believers would share in the ‘bosom of Abraham’ or ‘paradise,’ even continuing to grow in holiness there,” writes Ted Campbell, a professor at Perkins School of Theology, in his 1999 book Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials (Abingdon). That view has not been officially affirmed by the Church."
- ^ a b Orthodox Confession of Faith, questions 64–66.
- ^ Olivier Clément, L'Église orthodoxe. Presses Universitaries de France, 2006, Section 3, IV
- ^ See, for instance, LDS Life After Death
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Gehenna
- ^ Gehinnom
- ^ "Purgatory," Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ Collins English Dictionary
- ^ Megan McLaughlin, Consorting with Saints: Prayer for the Dead in Early Medieval France (Cornell University Press 1994 ISBN 978-0-8014-2648-3), p. 18
- ^ LeGoff, Jacques. The Birth of Purgatory. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1986, Pg 362–66
- ^ Cf. 2 Maccabees 12:42–44
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1032
- ^ John Henry Cardinal Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, chapter 2, section 3, paragraph 2.
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030–1031
- ^ a b Audience of 4 August 1999
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1021–1022
- ^ Cf. David L. Schindler, Love Alone Is Credible (Eerdmans 2008 ISBN 978-0-8028-6247-1), p. 222
- ^ CCC 1033
- ^ Cf. CCC 1030–1032
- ^ CCC 1030–1032
- ^ CCC 1054
- ^ CCC 1854
- ^ __P6C.HTM CCC 1855
- ^ CCC 1861
- ^ a b __P6C.HTM CCC 1863
- ^ CCC 1875
- ^ CCC 1263
- ^ __P4F.HTM CCC 1468
- ^ CCC 1030
- ^ a b CCC 1031
- ^ a b c Catholic Encyclopedia on Purgatory
- ^ Ps 66:12
- ^ Jean-Yves Lacoste, Encyclopedia of Christian Theology (Taylor and Francis, 2004 ISBN 978-1-57958-250-0), p. 1322
- ^ "Each one will be presented to the Judge exactly as he was when he departed this life. Yet, there must be a cleansing fire before judgment, because of some minor faults that may remain to be purged away. Does not Christ, the Truth, say that if anyone blasphemes against the Holy Spirit he shall not be forgiven 'either in this world or in the world to come'(Mt. 12:32)? From this statement we learn that some sins can be forgiven in this world and some in the world to come. For, if forgiveness is refused for a particular sin, we conclude logically that it is granted for others. This must apply, as I said, to slight transgressions." Gregory the Great [regn. A.D. 590–604], Dialogues, 4:39 (A.D. 594).
- ^ "For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones (1 Cor.,3); but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God; or on account of these hindrances would you remain without and receive no reward for your gold and silver and precious stones; neither is this just. It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials; for our God to those who can comprehend heavenly things is called a cleansing fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions and then returns to us the reward of our great works." Origen, Homilies on Jeremias, PG 13:445, 448 ( A.D. 244).
- ^ "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, PG 13:445,448 (ante A.D. 394).
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia on "poena sensus"
- ^ CCC 1473. In his 2007 encyclical Spe salvi, Pope Benedict XVI applies to the purgation of souls after death the words of Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 3:12–15 about some being "saved, but only as through fire"; in the encounter with Christ after death, Christ's "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" (Spe salvi, 46–47).
- ^ CCC 1472
- ^ Cabrol and Leclercq, Monumenta Ecclesiæ Liturgica. Volume I: Reliquiæ Liturgicæ Vetustissimæ (Paris, 1900–2) pp. ci–cvi, cxxxix.
- ^ CCC 1032
- ^ __P4G.HTM CCC 1471
- ^ CCC 1479
- ^ a b Indulgences in the Church | Catholic-Pages.com
- ^ http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/British-Library-unrolls-Henry-VIII-s-pious-past-25d.aspx
- ^ Starkey, D. 2009. Henry Virtuous Prince p.202 Harper Perennial. ISBN 97800007247721
- ^ Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution on Indulgences, norm 5
- ^ Section "Abuses" in Catholic Encyclopedia: Purgatory
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Reformation
- ^ King John by Warren. Published by the University of California Press in 1961. p. 11
- ^ General Audience Talk, 12 January 2011
- ^ Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 210–211
- ^ __P2N.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 1020–1032
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 1054
- ^ __P4G.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 1472–1473
- ^ Decree concerning Purgatory
- ^ Denzinger 1304 – old numbering 693
- ^ Treaty of Brest, Article 5
- ^ Doctrine
- ^ Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, article Purgatory
- ^ Death, The Threshold to Eternal Life
- ^ John Meyondorff, 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).
- ^ Michael Azkoul, What Are the Differences Between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism?
- ^ Ted A. Campbell, Christian Confessions: a Historical Introduction (Westminster John Knox Press 1996 ISBN 0-664-25650-3), p. 54
- ^ a b Confession of Dositheus, Decree 18
- ^ Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow, 372 and 376; Constas H. Demetry, Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox Church p. 37; John Meyondorff, 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)
- ^ What Are the Differences Between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism?; Constas H. Demetry, Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox Church p. 37
- ^ 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). "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). "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).
- ^ Death and the Toll House Controversy
- ^ "Pathan". Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PRE_PYR/PURGATORY_Late_Lat_purgatorium_.html. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ "Anglican Beliefs". All Saints Jakarta. http://www.allsaintsjakarta.org/angbel.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ Newmanreader.org
- ^ Lewis, C.S.. Prayer: Letters to Malcolm. p. 104. ISBN 0-00-628057-9.
- ^ Letters to Malcolm, chapter 20, paragraphs 7–12
- ^ The same argument has been used, for instance, by Nontrinitarianism with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity.
- ^ 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)
- ^ 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.)
- ^ Question 201 of Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation (Concordia Publishing House, 1991 edition) answers the question "For whom should we pray?" as follows: "We should pray for ourselves and for all other people, even for our enemies, but not for the souls of the dead" The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
- ^ Apology XXIV, 96
- ^ "The Twenty-Five Articles of Religion (Methodist)". CRI / Voice, Institute. http://www.crivoice.org/creed25.html. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
- ^ a b "What happens after a person dies?". The United Methodist Church. http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=16&mid=5029. Retrieved 10 March 2011. "John Wesley himself believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment, where those who rejected Christ would be aware of their coming doom (not yet pronounced), and believers would share in the "bosom of Abraham" or "paradise," even continuing to grow in holiness there. This belief, however, is not formally affirmed in Methodist doctrinal standards, which reject the idea of purgatory but beyond that maintain silence on what lies between death and the last judgment.""
- ^ "This Holy Mystery: Part Two". The United Methodist Church GBOD. http://www.gbod.org/worship/thisholymystery/parttwo.html. Retrieved 2007–07–10.
- ^ "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)
- ^ 99 Names of Allah
- ^ Gardet, L. "Jahannam," Encyclopedia of Islam.
- ^ For detailed explanation of Human Lives according to Islam please check this lecture.
- ^ Impact of the Near-Death Experience on Grief and Loss, by Bruce Horacek, Ph.D and by IANDS, 2003, lands.org
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