Soteriology in a Future Register: Expanding the Doctrine of Purgatory as a Process of Healing and Transformation for Victims

In purgatory, maintains my friend Brett Salkeld in his short book on purgatory, “we will all have our sins judged and we will all have our wounds healed, for heaven can abide neither.” Yet aside from a few rare voices speaking about eschatological reconciliation, very little has been said on the eschatological healing of victims. The claim of this dissertation is that it is a precondition for heaven that victims experience an eschatological healing of their other-inflicted wounds. We also assert that the most logical category for theological reflection upon this eschatological healing of wounds within the Catholic tradition is in purgatory. In its full doctrinal articulations at Lyons II, Florence, and Trent purgatory as a doctrine is concerned with personal sin. Victims, on the other hand, require healing from other-inflicted sin rather than self-inflicted sin. For this reason, a certain expansion of the doctrine is required in order to make theological space for victims.

Nevertheless, we argue that we find that theological space within the Church’s ample tradition. Throughout the dissertation, we return continuously to two sources: the wiping away of victims’ tears in the book of Revelation and the healing of Dinocrates through the prayers of his sister Perpetua. These sources are significant touchstones for us and guide us in our long journey through the history and doctrinal development of the doctrine of purgatory, as well as through our soteriological reflections on the salvation and healing of victims. They ground us in the conviction that the wounds of victims must not be eschatologically discarded but must be subjected to the healing salvation which Christ came to offer.