The last judgment is widely understood in Christianity as something which will take place in the eschata or eschaton (sometimes called ‘the end times’), with only marginal significance for everyday life. A closer look reveals this notion to be misguided. Understanding the last judgment as a...
This article explores the Christian notion of the resurrection of the dead under four headings: finality, individuality, communality and hope. For each, it takes its starting point in 1 Corinthians 15, and from there explores the debates and controversies associated with each basic affirmat...
In contemporary English, ‘hell’ is almost always used to refer either literally or metaphorically to a place of post-mortem punishment. However, in a longer perspective, the term was once commonly used to allude to the underworld more generally. In the latter sense in the Catholic West it b...
Purgatory is a place, state, or stage in the Christian afterlife where, after death, the soul is purged of minor, unexpiated sin so that it can be fit for heaven. ‘Purgatory’ derives from the Latin purgare (to purge) and hence as the noun purgatorium it is a place of purgation and purificat...