History_of_purgatory
The idea of purgatory has roots that date back into antiquity. A sort of proto-purgatory called the "celestial Hades" appears in the writings of Plato and Heraclides Ponticus and in many other pagan writers. This concept is distinguished from the Hades of the underworld described in the works of Homer and Hesiod. In contrast, the celestial Hades was understood as an intermediary place where souls spent an undetermined time after death before either moving on to a higher level of existence or being reincarnated back on earth. Its exact location varied from author to author. Heraclides of Pontus thought it was in the Milky Way; the Academicians, the Stoics, Cicero, Virgil, Plutarch, the Hermetical writings situated it between the Moon and the Earth or around the Moon; while Numenius and the Latin Neoplatonists thought it was located between the sphere of the fixed stars and the Earth.[1]
Perhaps under the influence of Hellenistic thought, the intermediate state entered Jewish religious thought in the last centuries B.C.E.[citation needed] In Maccabees we find the practice of prayer for the dead with a view to their after life purification[2] a practice accepted by some Christians. 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.[3] Among other reasons, Catholic teaching of purgatory is based on the pre-Christian (Judaic) practice of prayers for the dead.[4]
Descriptions and doctrine regarding purgatory developed over the centuries.[5] Roman Catholic Christians who believe in purgatory interpret passages such as 2 Timothy 1:18, Matthew 12:32, Luke 23:43, 1 Corinthians 3:11–3:15 and Hebrews 12:29 as support for prayer for purgatorial souls who are believed to be within an active interim state for the dead undergoing purifying flames (which could be interpreted as an analogy or allegory) after death until purification allows admittance into heaven.[3] The first Christians did not develop consistent and universal beliefs about the interim state.[6] Some modern speculation also includes Luke 16:19–16:26 as support for the concept of purgatory, but through the ages the Church has taught that the rich man has received his final judgment,[7][further explanation needed] and the text itself refers to a chasm which may not be crossed.[8] Gradually, Christians, especially in the West,[6] took an interest in circumstances of the interim state between one's death and the future resurrection. Christians both East and West prayed for the dead in this interim state, although theologians in the East refrained from defining it as a physical location with a distinct name.[6] Augustine of Hippo distinguished between the purifying fire that saves and eternal consuming fire for the unrepentant.[3] Gregory the Great established a connection between earthly penance and purification after death. All Soul's Day, established in the 10th century, turned popular attention to the condition of departed souls.[3]
While the idea of Purgatory as a physical place (like heaven and hell) became a theological opinion among some Roman Catholic theologians teaching in the late 11th century; the concept of Purgatory being a physical reality has never been a part of Catholic doctrine. [9] Medieval theologians concluded that the purgatorial punishments consisted of material fire. The Western formulation of purgatory proved to be a sticking point in the Great Schism between East and West.[citation needed] The Roman Catholic Church believes that the living can help those whose purification from their sins is not yet completed not only by praying for them but also by gaining indulgences for them[10] as an act of intercession.[11] The later Middle Ages saw the growth of considerable abuses, such as the unrestricted sale of indulgences by professional "pardoners"[11] sent to collect contributions to projects such as the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. These abuses were one of the factors that led to the Protestant Reformation. Most Protestant religions rejected[citation needed] the idea of purgatory as it conflicted with Protestant theology of "Salvation by grace alone" (Ephesians 2:4–9). Luther's canon of the Bible excluded the Deuterocanonical books. Modern Catholic theologians have softened the punitive aspects of purgatory and stress instead the willingness of the dead to undergo purification as preparation for the happiness of heaven.[3]
The English Anglican scholar John Henry Newman argued, in a book that he wrote before becoming Catholic, that the essence of the doctrine on purgatory is locatable in ancient tradition, and that the core consistency of such beliefs are evidence that Christianity was "originally given to us from heaven".[12]