The Birth of Purgatory

by Jacques Le Goff

Book Overview

In The Birth of Purgatory, Jacques Le Goff, the brilliant medievalist and renowned Annales historian, is concerned not with theological discussion but with the growth of an idea, with the relation between belief and society, with mental structures, and with the historical role of the imagination. Le Goff argues that the doctrine of Purgatory did not appear in the Latin theology of the West before the late twelfth century, that the word purgatorium...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226470822
• ISBN13: 9780226470825
• Release Date: December 1986
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 430 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Masterful Analysis of Purgatory's Origins in Catholic Doctrine

Purgatory, as a noun and as a doctrine, did not exist until the late 12th century (LeGoff pinpoints the date of its formal birth as 1170). The idea of purgatory, however, existed in Christian thought, and particularly in popular imagination, from the second century. Le Goff's magisterial study shows how the idea and imagination developed respectively into church doctrine, and into one of the world's great literary works, The Divine Comedy. Moreover, he shows the relationship between theology and popular religion, and the changes in the intellectual, social, and economic changes that took place from the time of late antiquity to the dawn of the high middle ages. The various concepts that were held from time to time, and those who held them are described in considerable detail, but never to the point of stultification. LeGoff argues convincingly that the logic of purgatory rested on some very basic assumptions or beliefs, (1) immortality and resurrection, which can be achieved within the span of a single individual (not perpetual reincarnation or metempsychosis) (2) the dead are judged at the time of death and at the end of time. (3) Although guilty by nature through original sin, men are judged for the sins they themselves are responsible for committing. (4) Sin is not binary--there are degrees of culpability, such that lesser sins can be expurgated. (5) Even after death, there is a nexus between the quick and the dead. The living can intercede, by suffrages--prayers and good works--on behalf of the dead to reduce the time or severity of purgation. (This belief, combined with degrees of sins, was later refined into the elaborate bookkeeping of indulgences). (6) Although the soul is immaterial, it can take on the aspect of corporeality in order to benefit from purgation, or to be eternally punished. When one finishes this book, his overwhelming impression is that the idea of purgatory as it finally evolved in church doctrine was an inexorable result of popular religion structured by a posteriori philosophical and theological reasoning. This is a very exciting book to read in that it is complete. LeGoff comes to closure on all of the outstanding issues, providing on the way a rich lode of historical, theological, and social detail.

The Birth of Purgatory.

_The Birth of Purgatory_ is an English translation of the work of French medievalist Jacques le Goff on purgatory, published in 1984 by The University of Chicago Press. This study of the development of the idea of Purgatory is not meant to be a theological one but rather a discussion of how the development of the idea of Purgatory relates to belief and culture. While le Goff writes from a secular perspective, he is sufficiently sympathetic to Catholic belief and to the civilization of the medieval world to make this book a particularly important and interesting one for both Catholic and non-Catholic alike. As such, this book offers an excellent study of the birth, growth, and development of the idea of Purgatory as a place from ancient times to the culmination in Dante and church doctrine. The book tends to take a neutral perspective regarding Catholic doctrine and thus can be profitably read as a useful history of the development of Catholic doctrine concerning the afterlife and the role of Purgatory. Le Goff begins his book by considering "The Third Place" and the role of Purgatory as it developed in the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Le Goff argues that a great deal was at stake in this conflict, including the underpinnings of an entire social structure. Le Goff also examines "Before Purgatory", the role of such otherworldly locations as the Hebrew sheol, the Roman Hades and the Elysian Fields. Following this, le Goff considers the role of space in the formation of the concept of Purgatory, the logic and genesis of the idea of Purgatory, and the idea of the intermediate (mentioning the notion of the "refrigerium") and the role of penal imagery including fire. Le Goff also notes the solidarity of the living and the dead in which it becomes possible to pray for souls in Purgatory as well as the theological evidence for Purgatory. The first part of this book is entitled "The Hereafter Before Purgatory". Le Goff begins by considering "Ancient Imaginings", or beliefs about the afterlife in the ancient world that were important precursors to the Christian belief in Purgatory. Le Goff considers beliefs about the afterlife among the Hindus, the Iranians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks and Romans. Le Goff also examines the arguments of Plato for reincarnation and metempsychosis emphasizing the role of Orphism. Le Goff also discusses the role of the pagan poet Vergil (so greatly respected by later Christians including perhaps most famously Dante) and his hero Aeneas who visits the underworld. Le Goff also discusses Gilgamesh in the underworld and ancient belief among the Babylonians. Further, le Goff examines the ancient Hebrew belief in sheol, showing how through Hebraic and Christian apocalyptic literature such belief came to play a prominent role in Christian belief. Le Goff examines several apocryphal texts including the Apocalypse of Paul to show early belief about the afterlife. Le Goff further shows how Judaic belief

Excellent book about an Obscure Topic

Le Goff's book explores the role of Purgatory in Medieval Europe. He traces its development and use in Medieval Christianity from ghost stories to Biblical precedents. Overall, an excellent treatment of a medieval phenomenon and its far reaching effects.

Masterful survey of the theological development of Purgatory

I don't want to quibble with the previous reviewer about what Le Goff's actual aims in writing this book were, or whether he should be penalized for not completely fulfilling his goals. But I will insist that this is a extraordinarily fascinating and highly successful survey of the gradual development of the idea of purgatory from the earliest wonderings about the relation between the Christian dead and the problems of purification of sin and the effects of the prayers of the living on the fate of the dead. Indeed, in all of this he succeeds remarkably. I'm not sure why the previous reviewer would imagine more than this would even be possible. There is a remarkable lack of primary and archival resources to make such a project possible. Even in tracing the theology, there are several centuries for which there is little evidence to assess. My own belief is that Le Goff has succeeded as well as we could ever hope for someone to do so in such a difficult concept. The account falls into two rather uneven parts. Le Goff spends much time on the prehistory of the idea of purgatory, focusing on such "fathers" of purgatory as Clement of Alexandria, Origin, and especially Augustine. The story is a complex one, and I will not attempt to rehearse it here. The significant thing to point out is that from the period of Augustine there was remarkably little development of the idea of purgatory until the 12th century, when the Scholastics and other theologians resurrected the issues that had troubled Augustine and others and came to a general consensus on them. Most remarkably, even after the Scholastics had developed the concepts and the Church had decided on the actuality of purgatory, purgatory did not achieve the kind of concreteness that it possessed in the centuries that followed and continued well into the 19th century (the idea of purgatory not being a particularly vibrant one today) until Dante wrote the second part of his COMEDY, in which Dante is led through purgatory by Virgil. Incredibly, it was this creative work of fiction and not the theologians or the Church that solidified in the imaginations of medieval Christians the notion of purgatory. Le Goff shows that until the time when Dante wrote the PURGATORY in the early 14th century, there was surprisingly little consensus about the nature of purgatory. After Dante, however, there would be a widespread consensus on the details concerning purgatory. Surely this is one of the few instances in church history where a creative artist bears the primary credit for theological dogma (I should add Catholic dogma, since protestants have never believed in the existence of purgatory). For instance, before Dante there was debate about where purgatory was located. In this world? In a section of hell? As an antechamber of paradise? Dante states that it is a place on earth, in the southern hemisphere, at the precise opposite of Jerusalem. What was the physical constitution of purgatory? Dante depicts