Purgatory
Biblical background
Some possibly relevant texts
Luke 23:43 [today in paradise]
1 Corinthians 15:29 [baptism for the dead]
Isaiah 6:6-7 [live coal removes guilt and sin]
2 Maccabees 12:39-45 [atonement for the dead as affirmation
of resurrection]
Wisdom 3:1 [souls of righteous in hand of God]
John 5:24 [believer has passed from death to life]
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 [work burned, but building saved]
Theological aspects
- place, time, or what?
- concern for the less than holy appearing before the Holy
- question of separation of soul and body
- doctrines: required, permissable, or forbidden
- lex orandi, lex credendi and/or lex credendi,
lex orandi
The traditional, popular belief in purgatory views it as a place of
purification by discipline for those who will eventually get into heaven.
Each soul there has a specific amount of time to be spent there, which time
can be reduced by prayers and good deeds of the living, as well as by the
excess merits of the saints. One of the causes of the protestant
reformations was the selling of "indulgences" to guarantee immediate
release from purgatory.
Official and semi-official Roman Catholic doctrine emphasizes that
salvation is already assured, and that there is no way to quantify the
time that remains. Indulgences are grants by God's grace of release
from some of the pain and time of purgatory. The application of the
prayers and good deeds of the faithful to the benefit of those in
purgatory [or, for that matter, to those still on earth] is not a right,
but a gift from the loving God.
"Protestant" objections to the teachings vary. Some object to the
requirement of a teaching not clearly taught in Scripture, but do not
object to the teaching as a matter of personal belief. Some object to
the entire system, which denies the sufficiency of the grace of God for
complete salvation. Others object to the teaching of a separation of soul
and body, contrary to scriptural teaching.
Assigned Readings
- 10.7 Cyril of Jerusalem on prayers for the dead
great benefit to pray for dead during eucharist
- 10.8 John Chrysostom on prayers for the dead
why should we doubt that offerings for dead bring comfort?
- 10.9 Gregory the Great on Purgatory
purifying fire before final judgment
based on pardon in age to come (Matt 12:32)
- 10.10 Benedict XII on the hope of heaven (1336)
if in need of purification, after being purified, souls
of believers will be in heaven before reunification
with bodies at general judgment
- 10.11 Catherine of Genoa on purgatory (1490?)
souls in purgatory without guilt of sin, but still with pain
of sin
united in will with God
- 10.16 Hans Urs von Balthasar on hell
distinction between hades and hell
descensus ad inferna is act of salvation
- Articles of Religion 22
"Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory ... repugnant
to the Word of God"
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, parag. 1030-1032
1030: all in grace assured of salvation, but nay need
purification
1031: purification of elect entirely different from punishment
of damned, based on cleansing fire
1032: since beginning, church has honored memory of dead and
prayed for them
Other suggested readings
- Newman, John Henry. Tract number ninety: remarks on certain passages in the Thirty-nine articles. American reprint from the second English ed. New York: H. B. Durand, 1865. [pp 39-48].
- Root, Michael. "The Jubilee indulgence and the Joint declaration on the doctrine of justification." Pro ecclesia 9, no. 4 (2000): 460-75.
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The page last modified 12 December 2000