|
|
|
|
Purgatory
|
| |
|
| |
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven. This is an idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, while the conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the achievement of medieval Christian piety and imagination.
The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, but some other Christian groups also assert the possibility of an improvement in the soul's spiritual situation following death.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Purgatory' Start a new discussion about 'Purgatory' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven. This is an idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, while the conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the achievement of medieval Christian piety and imagination.
The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, but some other Christian groups also assert the possibility of an improvement in the soul's spiritual situation following death. Anglo-Catholic Anglicans generally hold to the belief. The Eastern Orthodox Church believes 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, and many Orthodox, especially among ascetics, hope and pray for a general apocatastasisA similar belief in at least the possibility of a final salvation for all is held by Mormonism. Judaism also believes in the possibility of after-death purification and may even use the word "purgatory" to present its understanding of the meaning of Gehenna. However, the concept of soul "purification" may be explicitly denied in these other faith traditions.
The word "purgatory" has come to refer also to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation, and is used, in a non-specific sense, to mean any place or condition of suffering or torment, especially one that is temporary.
Purgatory in Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholicism gives the name purgatory to the final purification of all who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified. Though purgatory is often pictured as a place rather than a process of purification, this idea is not part of the Church's doctrine.
Heaven and Hell
According to Catholic belief, immediately after death, a person undergoes judgment in which the soul's eternal destiny is specified. Some are eternally united with God in Heaven, often envisioned as a paradise of eternal joy. Conversely, others are destined for Hell, a state of eternal separation from God often envisioned as a fiery place of punishment.
Purgatory's role
In addition to accepting the states of heaven and hell, Roman Catholicism envisages a third state before being admitted to heaven. According to Roman Catholic doctrine, some souls are not sufficiently free from sin and its consequences to enter the state of heaven immediately, nor are they so sinful as to be destined for hell either. Such souls, ultimately destined to be united with God in heaven, must first endure purgatory—a state of purification. In purgatory, souls "achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."
Sin
Roman Catholics make a distinction between two types of sin. Mortal sin is a "grave violation of God's law" that "turns man away from God", 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.
In contrast, venial sin (meaning "forgivable" sin) "does not set us in direct opposition to the will and friendship of God" and, although still "constituting a moral disorder", does not deprive the sinner of friendship with God, and consequently the eternal happiness of heaven.
According to Roman Catholicism, pardon of sins and purification can occur during life—for example, in the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Penance. However, if this purification is not achieved in life, venial sins can still be purified after death. The specific name given to this purification of sin after death is "purgatory".
Pain and fire
Purgatory is a cleansing that involves painful punishment, associated with the idea of fire such as is associated with the idea of hell. Several Church Fathers wrote about the purgatorial fire. St. Augustine described the fires of cleansing as more painful than anything a man can suffer in this life,and Pope Gregory I wrote that there must be a cleansing fire for some minor faults that may remain to be purged away. Origen wrote about the fire that needs to purify the soul St. Gregory of Nyssa also wrote about the purging fire.
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 and may now be the more common view. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of a "cleansing fire". 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". 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."
Prayer for the dead and Indulgences
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the fate of those in purgatory can be affected by the actions of the living.
|
| |
|
|
