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Jacques Le Goff – Reflecting on "The Birth of Purgatory"
In The Medieval Imagination, at p. 86, Jacques Le Goff reflects on his earlier work, The Birth of Purgatory (footnote omitted): Not long ago I completed several years of work on the birth of Purgatory. From the early days of Christianity Christians have shown by their prayers for the dead that they believed in the…
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Cardinal George Pell vs. Richard Dawkins – Some Thoughts
Someone directed me to a sort of informal debate between Cardinal Pell and Dawkins, in the form of a moderated Questions and Answers session. Dawkins came across as insecure, accusing the audience of bias (though they routinely cheered for his statements) and repeatedly asking the audience why they are laughing (such as at his comment…
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Purgatory Debate with Dan Marcum
Yesterday, Dan Marcum (Roman Catholic) and I did a short debate on purgatory. An mp3 of the debate is available. There a number of points within this debate that I would like to comment on, but I thought it would be better to go ahead and post the debate now. My main comment on the…
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Sungenis: Defending Purgatory By Attacking Limited Atonement
In my previous post (link to post) I highlighted Sungenis’ admission that Roman Catholicism cannot answer with any certainty even such a basic question about Purgatory as whether it is a place or state. In the same oddly titled article (link to article), Sungenis purports to respond to Dr. White’s criticism of the Roman view…
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Sungenis Claims: "the Church did not receive any divine revelation on the nature of Purgatory"
In a recent (2009) response to Dr. White, Robert Sungenis made some interesting admissions regarding the absence of knowledge of what Purgatory is in Roman Catholic theology: Since the Church did not receive any divine revelation on the nature of Purgatory, and since the Church declined to make any official statements on its nature, it…
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Two Eastern Fathers Whose Views Conflict with Purgatory
Here are some quotations from some of the “Eastern Fathers,” namely Basil of Caesarea (A.D. 329-379) and John Chrysostom (A.D. 349-407). In this first quotation, notice what Chrysostom is saying about where sin can be remedied, in terms of this life or the next: So there is no righteous person who does not have sin,…
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Chrysostom – Passages Inconsistent with an Idea of Purgatory
Chrysostom, in the following passages, provides evidence suggesting that he knows nothing of any kind of post-mortem experience as purgatory… Chrysostom (349-407) commenting on Matthew 6:12: Let us know these and let us remember that terrible day and that fire. Let us put in our mind the terrible punishments and return once for all from…
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Present with the Lord in Purgatory?
Over at Catholic Convert, pilgrimage peddler Steve Ray has a post arguing that a certain frequently cited Scripture does not dictate against Purgatory, that other Scripture does teach Purgatory, and that Purgatory involves being in the presence of the Lord (link to post). In the following analysis, we’ll consider his arguments piece by piece: I…
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Estius on 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
William Forbes relates for us the inconsistent comments of Estius on 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: But before we leave this subject, let us quote a few sentences from Estius concerning that most celebrated passage, and “on which the fate of purgatory (so to speak) depends” [FN: Andrews Response to Cardinal Bellarmine Apologian, Chapter 8, page 208]…
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New American Bible on 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
The text of 1 Cor 3:15 has sometimes been used to support the notion of purgatory, though it does not envisage this. – New American Bible, 1 Corinthians 3, Footnote 8, at 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, Vatican’s On-Line Edition (link)(same note at USCCB site) The New American Bible is a Roman Catholic translation, published under the…