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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]
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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
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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