Purgatory

• Four problems

  1. delay of Parousia, the delay of Jesus‘ second-coming means we must not predict the day of judgment
  2. place, where the new kingdom would be located and would this be the same as heaven?
  3. time and judgement, the role of the Church is to administer God’s judgement on Earth until the last day when God will visibly judge the world
  4. purgatory, those in purgatory should face punishment until final judgement
• Purgatory

  • Ambrose - place where souls wait for judgement
  • Origen - probationary school
  • Gregory of Nyssa - purifying purpose
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church - purification before eternal salvation
• Hope

  ”The hope doesn’t point to another world. It is focused on the redemption of this one.”
• Pope Gregory - purgatory

  forgiveness is possible in the world to come so there is a state before heaven
• Ambrose - purgatory

  forestatse of heaven and hell before eternity
• Gregory of Nyssa - purgatory

  preparation for the transformation of creation
• Origen - purgatory

  probationary period to outfit purify the soul
• Hick - purgatory

  resolves God’s benevolence and justice, universal salvation includes some purification
• Dante

  • for souls who believe in Christ and have repented before death
  • they now have the opportunity to purge themselves of all sin
  • the soul ascends “terraces of the mountain”, once it has reached the top, the soul ascends to heaven
  • the terraces represent each one of the 7 deadly sins