Isabel Moreira
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199736041
- eISBN:
- 9780199894628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199736041.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter identifies some of the earliest Christian texts to describe purgation as part of the Christian afterlife and examines the interpretation placed on them by patristic authors from Origen ...
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This chapter identifies some of the earliest Christian texts to describe purgation as part of the Christian afterlife and examines the interpretation placed on them by patristic authors from Origen to Augustine. Bede’s definition of purgatory is presented. The chapter discusses traditional “proof texts” for purgatory including 2 Maccabees, 1 Corinthians 3:11–15, and the fate of Dinocrates in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity. It discusses purgatorial fire, universal salvation, and how ideas about original sin intersected with an economy of pain that was thought to cross the barrier of death.Less
This chapter identifies some of the earliest Christian texts to describe purgation as part of the Christian afterlife and examines the interpretation placed on them by patristic authors from Origen to Augustine. Bede’s definition of purgatory is presented. The chapter discusses traditional “proof texts” for purgatory including 2 Maccabees, 1 Corinthians 3:11–15, and the fate of Dinocrates in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity. It discusses purgatorial fire, universal salvation, and how ideas about original sin intersected with an economy of pain that was thought to cross the barrier of death.
Alan E. Bernstein
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501707803
- eISBN:
- 9781501712494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501707803.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines the concept of purgatory. A temporary, therapeutic system of punishment after death that progressively cleanses sinners and thereby permits them to enter heaven did not come to ...
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This chapter examines the concept of purgatory. A temporary, therapeutic system of punishment after death that progressively cleanses sinners and thereby permits them to enter heaven did not come to be called purgatory for many centuries. According to Jacques Le Goff, there were two dramatically different phases in this development. First, he says, is a perception that suffering for those who die with only slight sins will cleanse them through punishments that are “purgatorial.” The adjective “purgatorial” describes certain pains—such as purgatorial fire—that remove the last imperfections from a saved soul needing only slight amendment before admission to heaven. Then, around 1170, thinkers began to conceive of purgatory as a place, considered as a proper noun, with a name of its own (purgatorium in Latin), occupying a demarcated, physical space between hell and heaven. Repentance remains the decisive factor between the purgatorial and the eternal fires.Less
This chapter examines the concept of purgatory. A temporary, therapeutic system of punishment after death that progressively cleanses sinners and thereby permits them to enter heaven did not come to be called purgatory for many centuries. According to Jacques Le Goff, there were two dramatically different phases in this development. First, he says, is a perception that suffering for those who die with only slight sins will cleanse them through punishments that are “purgatorial.” The adjective “purgatorial” describes certain pains—such as purgatorial fire—that remove the last imperfections from a saved soul needing only slight amendment before admission to heaven. Then, around 1170, thinkers began to conceive of purgatory as a place, considered as a proper noun, with a name of its own (purgatorium in Latin), occupying a demarcated, physical space between hell and heaven. Repentance remains the decisive factor between the purgatorial and the eternal fires.
Diana Walsh Pasulka
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780195382020
- eISBN:
- 9780190206826
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195382020.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the discussions about the location of purgatory in the works of medieval scholastics such as William of Auvergne and Thomas Aquinas. It also examines representations of ...
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This chapter examines the discussions about the location of purgatory in the works of medieval scholastics such as William of Auvergne and Thomas Aquinas. It also examines representations of purgatory in visionary literature about the afterlife. This chapter also contains an analysis of the works of scholars Jacques Le Goff and Alan Bernstein pertaining to the figurative or literal status of purgatory in the works of William of Auvergne. The chapter ends with an examination of the visionary myths and legends of the purgatory cave at Lough Derg, Ireland, called St. Patrick’s Purgatory, revealing the gradual development from a material conception of purgatory to a more abstract conception.Less
This chapter examines the discussions about the location of purgatory in the works of medieval scholastics such as William of Auvergne and Thomas Aquinas. It also examines representations of purgatory in visionary literature about the afterlife. This chapter also contains an analysis of the works of scholars Jacques Le Goff and Alan Bernstein pertaining to the figurative or literal status of purgatory in the works of William of Auvergne. The chapter ends with an examination of the visionary myths and legends of the purgatory cave at Lough Derg, Ireland, called St. Patrick’s Purgatory, revealing the gradual development from a material conception of purgatory to a more abstract conception.
