Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:53:25.384Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Atoning in purgatory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

JOSHUA C. THUROW
JOSHUA C. THUROW*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Classics, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article develops a new argument – The Argument from Atonement – that commonplace Christian assumptions about heaven imply the existence of purgatory. According to this argument, many Christians will die with residual moral guilt due to possessing unfulfilled moral debts towards fellow non-divine humans. Some of these debts cannot be fulfilled immediately after death and are not completely fulfilled or cancelled by Jesus's atoning work. Christians with such debts are fit neither for heaven nor for hell and thus must occupy purgatory until their moral debts are fulfilled.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 217 - 237
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Robert (1986) ‘The problem of total devotion’, in Audi, Robert & Wainwright, William (eds) Rationality, Religious Belief, and Moral Commitment (Ithaca: Cornell), 169–194.Google Scholar
Anselm, (1998) The Major Works, Davies, Brian & Evans, G. R. (eds) (New York: Oxford).Google Scholar
Barnard, Justin D. (2007) ‘Purgatory and the dilemma of sanctification’, Faith and Philosophy, 24, 311–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beilby, James & Eddy, Paul R. (eds) (2006) The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views (Downer's Grove IL: Intervarsity Press).Google Scholar
Brown, David (1985) ‘No heaven without purgatory’, Religious Studies, 21, 447–456.Google Scholar
Dumsday, Travis (2014) ‘Purgatory’, Philosophy Compass, 9/10, 732–740.Google Scholar
Grayland, Joe (2004) ‘The sacrament of penance/reconciliation in relation to public sin: remembering the place of restitution’, The Australasian Catholic Record, 81.2, 154–168.Google Scholar
Green, Bradley G. (2014) Covenant and Commandment: Works, Obedience, and Faithfulness in the Christian Life (Downer's Grove IL: Intervarsity Press).Google Scholar
Gregory of Nyssa (1954) ‘An address on religious instruction’, in Hardy, Edward R. (ed.) Christology of the Later Fathers (Philadelphia PA: Westminster John Knox Press), 268–325.Google Scholar
Grensted, L. W. (1920) A Short History of the Doctrine of the Atonement (Manchester: Manchester University Press).Google Scholar
Himma, Kenneth Einar (2010) ‘The problem of unresolved wrongdoing’, Faith and Philosophy, 27.4, 405–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judisch, Neal (2009) ‘Sanctification, satisfaction, and the purpose of purgatory’, Faith and Philosophy, 26.2, 167–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klawans, Jonathan (2006) Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism (New York: Oxford).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (2001/1945) The Great Divorce (San Francisco CA: HarperSanFrancisco).Google Scholar
Meens, Rob (2014) Penance in Medieval Europe 600–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
McNeil, John T. & Gamer, Helena M. (eds) (1938) Medieval Handbooks of Penance (New York: Columbia University Press).Google Scholar
Radzik, Linda (2009) Making Amends: Atonement in Morality, Law, and Politics (New York: Oxford).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmiechen, Peter (2005) Saving Power: Theories of Atonement and Forms of the Church (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans).Google Scholar
Stump, Eleonore (2003) Aquinas (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
Stump, Eleonore (2012) ‘The nature of the atonement’, in Clark, Kelly James & Rea, Michael (eds) Reason, Metaphysics, and Mind: New Essays on the Philosophy of Alvin Plantinga (New York: Oxford), 129–144.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard (1989) Responsibility and Atonement (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Walls, Jerry (2002) Heaven: The Logic of Eternal Joy (New York: Oxford).Google Scholar
Walls, Jerry (2012) Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation (New York: Oxford).Google Scholar