«Non uscirai di là finché non avrai pagato fino all’ultimo spicciolo»

Esegesi di Mt 5,25-26 e origini dell’idea di purgatorio

Abstract

Since the publication of J. Le Goff’s highly successful The Birth of Purgatory, in 1981, much research has been done, from various historical perspectives, on the doctrine of purgatory. Greater attention has also been paid to – on the one hand – current secularized forms of the idea and – on the other – the steady spread of belief in reincarnation in the West. In this paper I investigate texts by scholars writing in the early decades of the 3rd century AD – Tertullian, in particular – with the aim of demonstrating how the Christian imaginary of “purgatory” in the hereafter, which developed gradually, influenced by Jewish and Graeco-Roman models, and driven by the necessities of pastoral discipline, was, from the beginning, characterized by the adoption of juridical categories and influenced by the system of sanctions used at the time for punishing insolvent debtors. 

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Edizione digitale destinata alla vendita pubblicata da Editrice Morcelliana (link esterno), © 2018 Editrice Morcelliana. 
Edizione cartacea destinata alla vendita pubblicata da Editrice Morcelliana (ISSN 2239-6098; ISBN 978-88-372-3175-0; link esterno), © 2018 Editrice Morcelliana.