purgatory

Image of a fiery purgatory in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Image of a non-fiery purgatory (Gustave Doré: illustration for Dante's Purgatorio, Canto 24)

Our Lady of Mount Carmel with angels and souls in Purgatory. Baroque sculpture from Beniajan, Spain

Purgatory is the condition of purification or temporary punishment^[1] by which those who die in a state of grace are believed to be made ready for Heaven. This theological notion has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, but the poetic conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the creation of medieval Christian piety and imagination.^[1]

The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church (in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites it is a doctrine, though often without using the name "Purgatory"); Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there."^[2][3] The Eastern Orthodox Churches believe 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,^[4] and many Orthodox, especially among ascetics, hope and pray for a general apocatastasis.^[5] A similar belief in at least the possibility of a final salvation for all is held by Mormonism.^[6] Judaism also believes in the possibility of after-death purification^[7] and may even use the word "purgatory" to present its understanding of the meaning of Gehenna.^[8] However, the concept of soul "purification" may be explicitly denied in these other faith traditions.

The word "purgatory", derived through Anglo-Norman and Old French from the Latin word purgatorium,^[9] has come to refer also to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation,^[1] and is used, in a non-specific sense, to mean any place or condition of suffering or torment, especially one that is temporary.^[10]

History of purgatory

While use of the word "purgatory" (in Latin purgatorium) as a noun appeared perhaps only between 1160 and 1180, giving rise to the idea of purgatory as a place^[11] (what Jacques Le Goff called the "birth" of purgatory),^[12] the Roman Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional condition has a history that dates back, even before Jesus, to the worldwide practice of caring for the dead and praying for them, and to the belief, found also in Judaism,^[13] from which Christianity grew, that prayer for the dead contributed to their afterlife purification. The same practice appears in other traditions, such as the medieval Chinese Buddhist practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead, who are said to suffer numerous trials.^[1] Roman Catholic belief in purgatory is based, among other reasons, on the previous Jewish practice of prayer for the dead,^[14] a practice that presupposes that the dead are thereby assisted between death and their entry into their final abode.^[1]

The English Roman Catholic scholar Cardinal John Henry Newman argued that the essence of the doctrine is locatable in ancient tradition, and that the core consistency of such beliefs is evidence that Christianity was "originally given to us from heaven".^[15] Roman Catholics consider the teaching on purgatory to be part of the faith derived from the revelation of Jesus Christ that was preached by the apostles. Theologians and other Christians then developed the doctrine regarding purgatory over the centuries, leading to the definition of the formal doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church on the matter (as distinct from the legendary descriptions) at the Second Council of Lyon (1274), the Council of Florence (1438–1445), and the Council of Trent (1545–63).^[1]

Purgatory in Christianity

The views of Purgatory vary depending on Christian denomination. Some churches, typically those with a more Catholic structure, recognize the doctrine, while many Protestant churches reject it.

Purgatory in Catholicism

The Catholic Church gives the name Purgatory to the final purification of all who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified.^[16] Though purgatory is often pictured as a place rather than a process of purification, the idea of purgatory as a place is not part of the Church's doctrine.^[17]

Heaven and Hell

A depiction of purgatory by Venezuelan painter Cristóbal Rojas (1890) representing the boundary between heaven (above) and hell (below)

According to Catholic belief, immediately after death, a person undergoes judgment in which the soul's eternal destiny is specified.^[18] Some are eternally united with God in Heaven, often envisioned as a paradise of eternal joy, where Theosis is completed and one experiences the beatific vision of God. Conversely, others reach a state called Hell, that is eternal separation from God often envisioned as a fiery place of punishment, though the fire is sometimes seen metaphorically.^[19] It is stressed that it is by one's own free will that a person enters into the state of hell, separating themselves from God.^[20]

Purgatory's role

In addition to accepting the states of heaven and hell, Catholicism envisages a third state before being admitted to heaven. According to Catholic doctrine, some souls are not sufficiently free from the temporal effects of sin and its consequences to enter the state of heaven immediately, nor are they so sinful as to be destined for hell either.^[21] Such souls, ultimately destined to be united with God in heaven, must first endure purgatory – a state of purification.^[22] In purgatory, souls "achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."^[23] Temporal punishment and eternal punishment are incurred by mortal sin, but eternal punishment is remitted by the sacrament of reconciliation (known also as the sacrament of penance or confession). The remaining temporal punishment may be remitted by sufferings in this life, indulgences, or after death in Purgatory.

Sin

Catholics make a distinction between two types of sin.^[24] Mortal sin is a "grave violation of God's law" that "turns man away from God",^[25] 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.^[26] This teaching on the consequences of unrepented sin is based on both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

In contrast, venial sin (meaning "forgivable" sin) "does not set us in direct opposition to the will and friendship of God"^[27] and, although still "constituting a moral disorder",^[28] does not deprive the sinner of friendship with God, and consequently the eternal happiness of heaven.^[27]

According to Catholicism, pardon of sins and purification can occur during life – for example, in the Sacrament of Baptism^[29] and the Sacrament of Penance.^[30] However, if this purification is not achieved in life, venial sins can still be purified after death.^[31] The specific name given to this purification of sin after death is "purgatory".^[32]

Pain and fire

Purgatory is a cleansing that involves painful temporal punishment, associated with the idea of fire such as is associated with the idea of the eternal punishment of hell.^[33] Several Church Fathers regarded 1 Corinthians 3:10–15 as evidence for the existence of an intermediate state in which the dross of lighter transgressions will be burnt away, and the soul thus purified will be saved.^[33] Fire was the Bible-inspired image ("We went through fire and through water")^[34] that Christians used for the notion of after-life purification.^[35] St. Augustine described the fires of cleansing as more painful than anything a man can suffer in this life,^[33] and Pope Gregory I wrote that there must be a cleansing fire for some minor faults that may remain to be purged away.^[36] Origen wrote about the fire that needs to purify the soul^[37]St. Gregory of Nyssa also wrote about the purging fire.^[38]

Another image of souls being purified by flames in purgatory

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^[39] and may now be the more common view. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of a "cleansing fire".^[32] 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".^[40] 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."^[41]

Whilst the imagery of pain and fire is often used to depict Purgatory, this does not mean that Purgatory is necessarily a 'sad' state for the soul.^{[citation needed]} St Catherine of Genoa wrote a treatise on Purgatory in the late fifteenth century which focused upon the positive sense which a soul in purgatory would have, because the very nature of being in purgatory is a sign that the soul is on the way to be with God.^{[citation needed]} Whilst St. Catherine's approach to Purgatory was clearly non-typical, in canonising her the Roman Catholic Church declared that there was nothing contrary to faith in her writings.^{[citation needed]}

Prayer for the dead and Indulgences

Catacomb inscriptions include prayers for the dead.^[42]

The Catholic Church teaches that the fate of those in purgatory can be affected by the actions of the living. Its teaching is based also on the practice of prayer for the dead mentioned as far back as 2 Maccabees 12:42–46, considered by Catholics and Orthodox to be part of Sacred Scripture.^[43]

Statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel with souls in purgatory begging the intercession of Mary

In the same context there is mention of the practice of indulgences. An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.^[44] Indulgences may be obtained for oneself, or on behalf of the dead.^[45]

Prayers for the dead and indulgences have been popularly envisioned as decreasing the "duration" of time the dead spend in purgatory, an idea associated with the fact that, in the past, indulgences were measured in terms of days, "quarantines" (i.e. 40-day periods as for Lent), or years, meaning, not that purgatory would be shortened by that amount of time, but that the indulgences were equivalent to that length of canonical penance on the part of a living Christian.^[46] When the imposition of such canonical penances of a determinate duration fell out of custom these expressions were sometimes popularly misinterpreted as reduction of that much time of a soul's stay in purgatory.^[46] A prayer roll that once belonged to Henry VIII^[47] claimed that "this image of pity devotedly say 5 Pater Noster, 5 Ave Maria and 1 Credo..." gave a pardon and reduction of time in purgatory of "52,712 years and 40 days of pardon".^[48] In Pope Paul VI's revision of the rules concerning indulgences, these expressions were dropped, and replaced by the expression "partial indulgence", indicating that the person who gained such an indulgence for a pious action is granted, "in addition to the remission of temporal punishment acquired by the action itself, an equal remission of punishment through the intervention of the Church"^[49]

Historically, the practice of granting indulgences, and the widespread^[50] associated abuses, led to them being seen as increasingly bound up with money, with criticisms being directed against the "sale" of indulgences, a source of controversy that was the immediate occasion of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and Switzerland.^[51]

Purgatory as a physical place

Dante gazes at purgatory (shown as a mountain) in this 16th century painting.

The envisioning of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory as places in the physical universe was never a Church doctrine. Nonetheless, in antiquity and medieval times, Heaven and Hell were widely regarded as places existing within the physical universe: Heaven "above", in the sky; Hell "below", in or beneath the earth. Similarly, Purgatory has at times been thought of as a physical location.

In 1206, a peasant named Thurkhill in England claimed that Saint Julian took him on a tour of Purgatory. He gave precise details, including descriptions of Purgatory's torture chambers, and was widely believed, including by the Church historian Roger of Wendover.^[52] In Dante's fourteenth century work The Divine Comedy, Purgatory is depicted as a mountain in the southern hemisphere. It is apparently the only land there. Souls given a second chance find themselves at Mt. Purgatory, where there are two levels, then Seven Levels representing the Seven deadly sins with ironic punishments. For example, on the first level for Pride the inhabitants are weighed down by huge stones which forces them to look at examples of Pride on the pavement like Arachne. When they reach the top they will find themselves at Jerusalem's antipode, the Garden of Eden itself. Thus cleansed of all sin and made perfect, they wait in Earthly paradise before ascending to Heaven.

In 1999 Pope John Paul II declared that the term Purgatory does not indicate a place, but "a condition of existence".^[17]

In 2011 Pope Benedict XVI, speaking of Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510), said that in her time the purification of souls (Purgatory) was pictured as a location in space, but that the saint saw Purgatory as a purifying inner fire, such as she experienced in her profound sorrow for sins committed, when compared with God's infinite love. She said that being bound ill to the desires and suffering that derive from sin makes it impossible for the soul to enjoy the beatific vision of God. The Pope commented: "We too feel how distant we are, how full we are of so many things that we cannot see God. The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love; and love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin."^[53]

Catholic statements

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, first published in 2005, is a summary in dialog form of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It deals with purgatory in the following exchange:^[54]

210. What is purgatory?

Purgatory is the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.

211. How can we help the souls being purified in purgatory?

Because of the communion of saints, the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice. They also help them by almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance.

These two questions and answers summarize information in sections 1020–1032^[55] and 1054^[56] of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, which also speaks of purgatory in sections 1472 and 1473^[57]

Other authoritative statements are those of the Council of Trent in 1563^[58] and the Council of Florence in 1439.^[59]

Eastern Catholic churches

The Eastern Catholic churches are Catholic churches sui iuris of Eastern tradition, in full communion with the Pope. There are however some differences between the Latin Church and some of the Eastern Catholic Churches on aspects of purgatory. The Eastern Catholic Churches of Greek tradition do not generally use the word "purgatory", but agree that there is a "final purification" for souls destined for heaven, and that prayers can help the dead who are in that state of "final purification". In general, neither the members of the Latin Church nor the members of these Eastern Catholic Churches regard these differences as major points of dispute, but see them as minor nuances and differences of tradition. A treaty that formalized the admission of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into the full communion of the Roman Catholic Church stated: "We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church",^[60] implying, in the opinion of a theologian of that Church, that both sides can agree to disagree on the specifics of what the West calls "purgatory", while there is full agreement on the essentials.^[61] Between the Latin Church and some other Eastern Catholic Churches, such as the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, there is no disagreement about any aspect of the doctrine of purgatory.

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Dormition of the Theotokos (a thirteenth-century icon)

The Eastern Orthodox Church came to admit of an intermediate state after death, but refrained from defining it so as not to blur the distinction between the alternative fates of Heaven and Hell; it combined with this doctrine a firm belief in the efficacy of prayer for the dead, which was a constant feature of both East and West liturgies. Such prayer is held to be unintelligible without belief in some interim state in which the dead might benefit.^[62]

According to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America:

The moral progress of the soul, either for better or for worse, ends at the very moment of the separation of the body and soul; at that very moment the definite destiny of the soul in the everlasting life is decided. ... There is no way of repentance, no way of escape, no reincarnation and no help from the outside world. Its place is decided forever by its Creator and judge. The Orthodox Church does not believe in purgatory (a place of purging), that is, the inter-mediate state after death in which the souls of the saved (those who have not received temporal punishment for their sins) are purified of all taint preparatory to entering into Heaven, where every soul is perfect and fit to see God. Also, the Orthodox Church does not believe in indulgences as remissions from purgatoral punishment. Both purgatory and indulgences are inter-corrolated theories, unwitnessed in the Bible or in the Ancient Church, and when they were enforced and applied they brought about evil practices at the expense of the prevailing Truths of the Church. If Almighty God in His merciful loving-kindness changes the dreadful situation of the sinner, it is unknown to the Church of Christ. The Church lived for fifteen hundred years without such a theory.^[63]

Eastern Orthodox teaching is that, while all undergo a Particular Judgment immediately after death, neither the just nor the wicked attain the final state of bliss or punishment before the last day,^[64] with some exceptions for righteous souls like the Theotokos (Blessed Virgin Mary), "who was borne by the angels directly to heaven".^[65]

The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that it is necessary to believe in an intermediate after-death state in which believers are perfected and brought to full divinization, a process of growth rather than of punishment, which some Orthodox have called purgatory.^[66] Eastern Orthodox theology does not generally describe the situation of the dead as involving suffering or fire, although it nevertheless describes it as a "direful condition".^[67] The souls of the righteous dead are in light and rest, with a foretaste of eternal happiness; but the souls of the wicked are in a state the reverse of this. Among the latter, such souls as have departed with faith, but "without having had time to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance..., may be aided towards the attainment of a blessed resurrection [at the end of time] by prayers offered in their behalf, especially those offered in union with the oblation of the bloodless sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, and by works of mercy done in faith for their memory."^[68]

The state in which souls undergo this experience is often referred to as "Hades".^[69]

The Orthodox Confession of Peter Mogila (1596–1646), adopted, in a Greek translation by Meletius Syrigos, by the 1642 Council of Jassy, in Romania, professes that "many are freed from the prison of hell ... through the good works of the living and the Church's prayers for them, most of all through the unbloody sacrifice, which is offered on certain days for all the living and the dead" (question 64); and (under the heading "How must one consider the purgatorial fire?") "the Church rightly performs for them the unbloody sacrifice and prayers, but they do not cleanse themselves by suffering something. But, the Church never maintained that which pertains to the fanciful stories of some concerning the souls of their dead, who have not done penance and are punished, as it were, in streams, springs and swamps" (question 66).".^[4]

The Eastern Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem (1672) declared that "the souls of those that have fallen asleep are either at rest or in torment, according to what each hath wrought" (an enjoyment or condemnation that will be complete only after the resurrection of the dead); but the souls of some "depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed. But they are aware of their future release from there, and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers of the Priests, and the good works which the relatives of each do for their Departed; especially the unbloody Sacrifice benefiting the most; which each offers particularly for his relatives that have fallen asleep, and which the Catholic and Apostolic Church offers daily for all alike. Of course, it is understood that we do not know the time of their release. We know and believe that there is deliverance for such from their direful condition, and that before the common resurrection and judgment, but when we know not."^[67]

Some Orthodox believe in a teaching of "aerial toll-houses" for the souls of the dead. According to this theory, which is rejected by other Orthodox but appears in the hymnology of the Church,^[70] "following a person's death the soul leaves the body and is escorted to God by angels. During this journey the soul passes through an aerial realm which is ruled by demons. The soul encounters these demons at various points referred to as 'toll-houses' where the demons then attempt to accuse it of sin and, if possible, drag the soul into hell."^[71]

Anglicanism

The Anglican Communion, as well as many Continuing Anglican churches, reject the doctrine of purgatory, with the exception of Anglo-Catholics.^[72] Article XXII of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of the Anglican Church states that "The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory…is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God."^[73] Nevertheless, among Anglo-Catholics, who often identify strongly with Roman Catholic liturgy and theology, there are those who accept that purgatory exists. C. S. Lewis said there were good reasons for "casting doubt on the 'Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory' as that Romish doctrine had then become", not merely "the commercial scandal" but also the picture of purgatory as a temporary Hell, in which the souls are tormented by devils, whose presence is "more horrible and grievous to us than is the pain itself", and where the spirit who suffers the tortures cannot, for pain, "remember God as he ought to do". He believed instead in purgatory as presented in John Henry Newman's The Dream of Gerontius,^[74] of which he wrote: "Religion has reclaimed Purgatory", a process of purification that will normally involve suffering.^[75][76]

Protestantism

In general, Protestant churches do not accept the doctrine of purgatory. One of Protestantism's central tenets is sola scriptura ("scripture alone"). The general Protestant view is that the Bible, from which Protestants exclude deuterocanonical books such as 2 Maccabees, contains no overt, explicit discussion of purgatory and therefore it should be rejected as an unbiblical belief.^[77]

Another tenet of Protestantism is sola fide ("by faith alone"): that faith alone, apart from any action, is what achieves salvation, and that good works are merely evidence of that faith. Salvation is generally seen as a discrete event that takes place once for all during one's lifetime, and does not require any immediate transformation of character. However, most Protestants teach that a transformation of character will naturally follow the salvation experience. Instead of distinguishing between mortal and venial sins, Protestants believe that one's faith dictates one's state of salvation and one's place in the afterlife. Those who have been saved by God are destined for heaven, while those have not been saved will be excluded from heaven. Accordingly, they reject any notion of a provisional or temporary afterlife state such as purgatory.

Some Protestants hold that a person enters into the fullness of its bliss or torment only after the resurrection of the body, and that the soul in that interim state is conscious and aware of the fate in store for it.^[78] Others have held that souls in the intermediate state between death and resurrection are without consciousness, a state known as soul sleep.^[79]

Lutheranism

Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran Church, believed that it was of no avail to pray for the dead.^[80] Nonetheless, a core statement of Lutheran doctrine, from the Book of Concord, states: "We know that the ancients speak of prayer for the dead, which we do not prohibit; but we disapprove of the application ex opere operato of the Lord's Supper on behalf of the dead. ... Epiphanius testifies that Aerius held that prayers for the dead are useless. With this he finds fault. Neither do we favor Aerius, but we do argue with you because you defend a heresy that clearly conflicts with the prophets, apostles, and Holy Fathers, namely, that the Mass justifies ex opere operato, that it merits the remission of guilt and punishment even for the unjust, to whom it is applied, if they do not present an obstacle." (Philipp Melanchthon, Apology of the Augsburg Confession).^[81] The Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, however, believes in the doctrine of purgatory, as well as papal infallibility and all Roman Catholic dogma.

Methodism

Methodist churches hold that "the Romish doctrine concerning purgatory ... is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God."^[82] Its founder John Wesley believed that there is "an intermediate state between death and the final judgment, where those who rejected Christ would be aware of their coming doom (not yet pronounced),^[83] and believers would share in the 'bosom of Abraham' or 'paradise', even continuing to grow in holiness there."^[2][3] Methodism does not formally affirm this belief, but maintains silence on what lies between death and the last judgment.^[83] It also views the manner of Christ's presence in Holy Communion as a holy mystery, but in this case affirms the reality of the presence.^[84]

Judaism

In Judaism, Gehenna is a place of purification where, according to some traditions, most sinners spend up to a year before release.

The view of purgatory can be found in the teaching of the Shammaites: "In the last judgment day there shall be three classes of souls: the righteous shall at once be written down for the life everlasting; the wicked, for Gehenna; but those whose virtues and sins counterbalance one another shall go down to Gehenna and float up and down until they rise purified; for of them it is said: 'I will bring the third part into the fire and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried' [Zech. xiii. 9.]; also, 'He [the Lord] bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up again'" (I Sam. ii. 6). The Hillelites seem to have had no purgatory; for they said: "He who is 'plenteous in mercy' [Ex. xxxiv. 6.] inclines the balance toward mercy, and consequently the intermediates do not descend into Gehenna" (Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 3; R. H. 16b; Bacher, "Ag. Tan." i. 18). Still they also speak of an intermediate state.

Regarding the time which purgatory lasts, the accepted opinion of R. Akiba is twelve months; according to R. Johanan b. Nuri, it is only forty-nine days. Both opinions are based upon Isa. lxvi. 23–24: "From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before Me, and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched"; the former interpreting the words "from one new moon to another" to signify all the months of a year; the latter interpreting the words "from one Sabbath to another," in accordance with Lev. xxiii. 15–16, to signify seven weeks. During the twelve months, declares the baraita (Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 4–5; R. H. 16b), the souls of the wicked are judged, and after these twelve months are over they are consumed and transformed into ashes under the feet of the righteous (according to Mal. iii. 21 [A. V. iv. 3]), whereas the great seducers and blasphemers are to undergo eternal tortures in Gehenna without cessation (according to Isa. lxvi. 24).

The righteous, however, and, according to some, also the sinners among the people of Israel for whom Abraham intercedes because they bear the Abrahamic sign of the covenant are not harmed by the fire of Gehenna even when they are required to pass through the intermediate state of purgatory ('Er. 19b; Ḥag. 27a).^[85]

Islam

In Islam also, Muslims believe hell is a temporary place of punishment for some, eternal for others. Sinning believers who end up in Hell will stay temporarily but eventually will be removed and admitted into Paradise, and those who reject Allah (Arabic for God)^[86] will remain in Hell eternally.^[87] Chapter Al-A'raf of the Quran speaks more specifically about this.

Barzakh (Arabic: برزخ), a term that appears in the Qur'an Surah 23, Ayat 100, is the intermediate state in which the soul of the deceased is transferred across the boundaries of the mortal realm into a kind of "cold sleep" where the soul will rest until the Qiyamah (Judgement Day). This concept corresponds to that of soul sleep, not to that of purgatory.^[88]

Purgatory and the Life Review

The life review undergone by those who have had a Near Death Experience (NDE), can resemble a sort of purgatory. This is what Bruce Horacek Ph.D and the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) write about the Life Review: "During a predominantly pleasurable NDE, usually while in the light, the NDEr may experience a life review. In this review, the NDEr typically re-views (sees again) and re-experiences every moment of his/her life. At the same time, the NDEr fully experiences being every other person with whom the NDEr interacted. The NDEr knows what it was to be on the receiving end of his/her own actions including those that caused others pain. At this time, the NDEr usually reports feeling profound remorse, along with extreme regret that the harm cannot be undone. At the same time, the NDEr typically reports feelings consistent with unconditional love from the light, which communicates forgiveness because the NDEr was still learning how to become a more loving person. NDErs tend to say that this "learning how to love" is the purpose of life."^[89] In Richard Matheson's novel What Dreams May Come, a newly dead character sees all the events of his life unfold in reverse, then later experiences the same thing slowly, in a self-evaluation process that the novel equates with purgatory.

Cultural references

La Divina Commedia di Dante (Dante and the Divine Comedy), fresco by Domenico di Michelino, in the nave of the Duomo of Florence, Italy

Literary references to purgatory go back at least as far as Dante Alighieri. In his Divine Comedy story Purgatorio, Mount Purgatory is split into different terraces for those being made to be ready for heaven. At the top of Mount Purgatory is the Garden of Eden.

In the 1991 film Defending Your Life, Judgement City is a purgatory-like waiting area for the recently deceased waiting to be judged.

Purgatory is mentioned in many television shows, including The Sopranos, Lost, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Fringe and Supernatural.

In the South Park episode "Dead Celebrities", the experience of waiting for an airplane to take off while on the runway is referred to as purgatory.

In the 1999 film Purgatory by Uli Edel, a band of outlaws find themselves in the town of Refuge, which is really Purgatory.

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Purgatory

• Church Fathers on Purgatory
• "purgatory". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009.

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