Purgatory : Can it be true
Purgatory, derived from the Latin word purgatorium, which means 'to purge', now also includes various historical and modern beliefs about suffering after death that are not eternal damnation.
Purgatory and 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. Beliefs and practices, relating to purgatory, profoundly affected Western society in the Middle Ages and beyond.
As the focus of a complex system of suffrages
- intercessory prayers,
- masses,
- alms,
- fasting on behalf of the dead
does purgatory strengthened the bond between the living and the dead, by providing motivation for works of social philanthropy as well as for pilgrimages and crusades. This furnished abundant matter for visionary and imaginative literature.
Origins of the doctrine
Advocates of purgatory find support in numerous scriptural and non-scriptural traditions.
The well-attested early Christian practice of prayer for the dead, for example, was encouraged by the episode (rejected by Protestants as apocryphal) in which Judas Maccabeus (Jewish leader of the revolt against the tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes) makes atonement for the idolatry of his fallen soldiers.
He provided prayers and a monetary sin offering on their behalf (2 Maccabees 12:41–46), by the Apostle Paul’s prayer for Onesiphorus (2 Timothy 1:18), and by the implication in Matthew 12:32 that there may be forgiveness of sins in the world to come.
The parable of Dives and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–26 and the words of Jesus from the cross to the repentant thief in Luke 23:43 are also cited in support of an interim period before the Day of Judgment, during which the damned may hope for respite, the blessed preview their reward and the 'mixed' undergo correction.
The noncanonical tradition, that on Holy Saturday Christ invaded the realm of the dead and liberated Adam and Eve and the biblical patriarchs, lends support to the view that there is a temporary realm of imprisonment after death.
Evolution of the custom
Innovative writings, like the Passion of Saints Perpetua and resurrection tales shared by Gregory I, supported the belief that the deceased can be purified and helped through prayers by the living.
Canonical penance in the West developed based on the idea that sins, even if forgiven, result in particular punishments and any unfinished satisfaction must be fulfilled posthumously.
The church could give out indulgences from the "treasury of merits" to reduce temporal punishment, which could also be lessened by suffrages performed for the dead by the living.
Attitudes that are non-Catholic and contemporary
The concept of purgatory continues to be a topic of debate.
Eastern Orthodox Christians continue the tradition of praying for the dead but do not accept the Roman Catholic interpretation or the associated penitential system as legitimate developments.
For Protestant reformers in the 16th century, the exchange of indulgences for donations represented the idea of earning salvation through good deeds and the corruption of the medieval church, with only a small number of modern Protestant thinkers supporting the doctrine.
The abandonment of purgatory beliefs in Protestant cultures led to its reinterpretation by Swedenborgian, spiritualists, theosophical and New Age authors as a psychologically imagined realm of learning and spiritual advancement.
Roman Catholic beliefs shifted
Current Roman Catholic beliefs affirm traditional ideas about purgatory, but have shifted from using frightening images of hell and have lessened the emphasis on punishment.
The focus now is on the souls in purgatory, willingly purifying themselves in preparation for experiencing God's ultimate joy in heaven.
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