Purgatory

Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte is Invited Professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome, Italy and Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He started his studies in Philosophy at the Higher Institute for Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and obtained his PHD in Philosophy at the Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome, Italy. He studied Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical University Gregoriana, and was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh. In 2010 he was awarded the 'European Philosophy from Kant to the Present Prize', issued by the University of Kentucky. He has published on topics ranging from continental philosophy, patristics, theology-philosophy-politics interdependencies, educational theory, to football.  Benjamin W. McCraw teaches philosophy at the University of South Carolina Upstate.  His research focuses primarily on epistemology and philosophy of religion.  He’s published articles in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy and Theology, Social Epistemology, and Logos and Episteme as well as co-editor of The Concept of Hell, Philosophical Approaches to the Devil,  The Problem of Evil: New Philosophical Directions, and Philosophical Approaches to Demonology

“This is a valuable contribution that will spur further research on the fascinating doctrine of purgatory and how it relates to our ultimate destiny as human beings.” (Jerry L. Walls, Journal of Analytic Theology, Vol. 7, July, 2019)“This is a collection of sixteen exciting essays on the notion of Purgatory, not a from historical or cultural but philosophical point of view, unlike the other essays published on the subject in the last years.” (Andreea-Maria Lemnaru, Metapsychology Online Reviews, Vol. 23 (28), 2019)“Vanhoutte and McCraw have brought together 16 original essays on the topic of purgatory. …  There are not many books devoted solely to the philosophical dimension of purgatory, so this volume is welcome. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.” (A. Jaeger, Choice, Vol. 55 (9), May, 2018)

• 1. Introduction.- 2. Purgatory, Atonement, and the Self.- 3. Religious and Paranormal Experiences as Evidence for Purgatory.- 4.  In the Twinkling of an Eye.- 5.  Purgatory’s Temporality.- 6. Indulgent Love.- 7. Leibniz, Purgatory, and Universal Salvation.- 8. Mirror Geography: On the Emergence of Purgatory and the City.- 9.  Climbing up to Heaven: the Hermetic Option.- 10.   Poetry as Purgatorial: Dante and the Language(s) of Purgatory.- 11.  Aquinas and the Possibility of a Probable Reasoned Argument for the Existence of Purgatory.- 12.  The Body in Crisis: Contemporary Articulation of Purgatory.- 13. Praying for the Dead: An Ecumenical Proposal.- 14.. On the Metaphysics of Economics and Purgatory.- 15. Issues of Impermanence: Christian and Early Buddhist Contemplations of Time.- 16. The Purification of Doubt: Is it Better to Exist in Purgatory?.