The doctrine of purgatory has fueled some of the most passionate division amongst Catholics and Protestants ever since the Reformation. But with a closer look at the doctrine and its different latitudes of dogma within the history of the Church, we may be able to put to rest the two extremes that continue to battle against each other.
Roman Catholics sometimes describe purgatory as originating in the 2nd century (Harnack) or the 3rd century (Schaff-Herzog ).[1] John Henry Newman said that the Church fathers advocated “vague forms of the doctrine of Purgatory”[2]Irenaeus(c. 130-202) mentioned an abode where the souls of the dead remained until the universal judgment, something that has been described in which “contains the concept of… purgatory.”[3]
Purgatory was formally instituted in the Church at the Medieval Church Councils of Florence (1431) and Trent (1439). The Medieval Reformers responded to Trent by stating ‘there is a purgatory,’ although failed to be descriptive about this state of death.[4]Cardinal Julian Cesariniat at the Council of Florence said this regarding the doctrine of Purgatory:
From the time of the Apostles, the Church of Rome has taught that the souls departed from this world that are pure and free from every taint, that is the souls of saints, immediately enter the regions of bliss. The souls of those who, following their baptism, have sinned, yet have thereafter sincerely repented and confessed their sins, but were unable either to perform the penances laid upon them by their spiritual father or to bring forth fruits of repentance sufficient to atone for their sins, are purified by the fire of purgatory - some sooner, others slower, according to their sins; and then, after their purification, they depart for the land of eternal bliss. The prayers of the priest, liturgies, and deeds of charity conduce much to their purification. The souls of those dead in mortal sin, or in original sin, go straight to punishment.
It appears that the purgatory described here is inclusive to those Christians that were perhaps, as Protestants call them, Christians that are not rooted. Protestants would also call this group of people by those that have tasted the heavenly gift (Hebrews 6). What happens to these people? These are people that have not produced the proper fruit that Christ speaks of in John 15, and as the passage explains, are “thrown into the fire.” This fire could be referring to hell, but Christ has used the word geena (hell) in other statements yet chooses not to do so here. Of course, he is speaking figuratively, but not altogether abstract. The word geena could have easily been used, even in this figurative context. There is also no reference to the state of suffering that he most often uses when referring to geena.
St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15:
For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay stubble: Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.”
This passage clearly sates that there is some sort of degree of sin and of discipline within the Christian eschaton. The term “day of the Lord” is referred to by Baptist theologian John Mccarthur as the judgement seat of Christ that is described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:10.[5]The last sentence of the verse says that a Christian may actually be saved by fire, asserting that the cleansing fire,spoken of in the previous sentences, goes beyond the mere expulsion of bad works. It implies that the fire is a necessarypart of the salvific process. St. Augustine comments on the subject of a purgatorial state both before and after death:
Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by ’some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment”[6]
Pope Benedict XVI speaks of Purgatory in more contemporary terms than that of Augustine and even the Council of Florence:
Purgatory is not some kind of supra-worldly concentration camp where one is forced to undergo punishments in a more or less arbitrary fashion. Rather it is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God [i.e. capable of full unity with Christ and God] and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints… Encounter with the Lord is this transformation. It is the fire that burns away our dross and re-forms us to be vessels of eternal joy. [Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1994).]
Does our eternal reward/treasure involve actual movement from one locality to another (i.e. purgatory to heaven)? How vital to Christian orthodoxy is this particular discussion? Should we lump both localities together as “eternal life” and call it quits? Once we actually define and articulate each locality/state of judgment, do we breach orthodox doctrine? Pope Benedict, in this particular statement, does not describe purgatory in terms of locality. Perhaps he is reforming the doctrine, viewing it as one that was abused in medieval times.
It seems that the confusion and debate between Evangelicals and Catholics on the subject of purgatory is not as complex as many believe. We both believe in a state of purification, after death, to where certain sins are expunged. Although, Evangelicals do not believe that is so much as a transformation, but rather a confirmation; that is, the Evangelical is very uncomfortable with the fact that the Romanist proposes an unfinished type of sanctification of the believer. What the Roman Catholics do have in favor regarding this is that the verse in 1 Corinthians strictly states that the saint will endure some sort of fire. It would be dangerous to propose this to be completely figurative in that then the whole chapter could be viewed with this ascertain. Again, we are lead back to the argument of locality! Should we divide over the fact that one camp says this testing will be done on a/the judgment seat, and the other camp says it will be done with certain discomfort of the soul?
The choice whether or not to divide over the doctrine of Purgatory, I believe, needs to be further dialoged in the future. If all history of the Church is accounted for, as well as the Scripture, I would say that both Romanists and Protestants have some humility to embrace.
[1]New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IX: Petri - Reuchlin
[2]Newman, John Henry. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1909.
[3]Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.31.2, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers eds.
[4]Hastings, Mason, Pyper, The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, p. 582
[5]Mccarthur, Mccarthur study Bible, 1997 Word Publishing
[6] Augustine, The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]