Changing Western European Visions of Christian Afterlives, 1350–1700
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23199852 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth L Tingle (0000-0003-4530-6452, corresponding author), Elizabeth Tingle |
| Year | 2020 |
| Pages | 33-71 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-17 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | A companion to death, burial, and remembrance in late Medieval and early modern Europe c.1300-1700 (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/9789004443433_003 |
| OpenAlex | W4237508020 |
| ISBN | 9789004443433 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
The chapter presents a survey of changing beliefs in the afterlife across the period 1300–1700. By the later Middle Ages in western Europe, the relationship between the living and the afterlife was mediated in large part by the Catholic Church. The souls of the departed went to hell or to heaven, the latter usually after a time in purgatory. The destination of the soul was determined by an individual’s actions in this life, but the length of time it took to reach heaven was influenced also by the ongoing community of the living through the process of intercession. The Protestant Reformations saw this eschatology challenged. Purgatory was denied as non-Biblical; intercession for the dead was rejected, while an afterlife of heaven or hell, after final judgement, was accepted. In regions won for Reform, the complex institutions which had grown up to service the needs of souls, funerals and post-mortem masses, priests and colleges, memorials and chapels, were swept away. Such criticism also affected Catholicism. Purgatory had to be justified anew, at Trent and afterwards, in the face of religious wars. In much of Europe, this took several decades, with a tripartite eschatology emerging strongly once more in the 17th century, until its decline during the Enlightenment.
Afterlife · Art · Damnation · Enlightenment · Eschatology · Heaven · Judgement · Protestantism · Purgatory · Soul · Theology · Vision · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies
| Citations per year | 0.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2024 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |