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Personal identity and Purgatory

  • Niagara University

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

If Purgatory involves just an immaterial soul undergoing a transformation between our death and resurrection, then, as Aquinas recognized, it won't be us in Purgatory. Drawing upon Parfit's ideas about identity not being what matters to us, we explore whether the soul's experience of Purgatory could still be beneficial to it as well as the deceased human who didn't experience the purging yet would possess the purged soul upon resurrection. We also investigate an alternative non-Thomistic hylomorphic account of Purgatory in which humans would survive during the period between death and resurrection in a bodiless form with a soul as their only proper part.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)439-451
Number of pages13
JournalReligious Studies
Volume42
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006

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