Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Short History of Purgatory

Chapter 2: Protestant Objections and Alternatives to Purgatory

Chapter 3: Models of Purgatory

Chapter 4: Personal Identity, Time, and Purgatory

Chapter 5: Purgatory and Theories of a "Second Chance"

Chapter 6: C.S. Lewis and the Prospect of Mere Purgatory

Conclusion: Looking Forward by Looking Back

About the Author

Jerry L. Walls has served as a Research Fellow in the Center for Philosophy of Religion at Notre Dame. He is the author of a trilogy on the afterlife, the first two volumes of which are Hell: The Logic of Damnation and Heaven: The Logic of Eternal Joy. He is also the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology.

Reviews

"Only Jerry Walls or C.S. Lewis could have written this splendid book on the history and philosophical theology of purgatory. It is clear, systematic, engaging, and illuminating."
-- Charles Taliaferro, Professor of Philosophy, St. Olaf College
"A fascinating account of the development of the doctrine of purgatory by a leading Wesleyan scholar. Walls traces Christian views on purgatory from the early church to C. S. Lewis and comes up with a surprisingly affirmative conclusion about a view of the afterlife that has divided Catholics and Protestants for nearly 500 years. An important and nuanced study."
-- Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University
"For a generation or more a stout Protestant doctrine of purgatory has been an accident waiting to happen. Given Jerry Walls's cheerful and articulate presentation, we can predict that a host of readers will be in no hurry to leave the scene until they have come to terms with this provocative proposal in analytic theology."
-- William J. Abraham, Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
"Historically informed, philosophically competent, and theologically alert, the result is an impressive book...This is a splendid treatment of the topic -- as careful and fair a discussion of the doctrine of purgatory as one is likely to find."--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"Historically informed, philosophically competent, and theologically alert, the result is an impressive book...This is a splendid treatment of the topic -- as careful and fair a discussion of the doctrine of purgatory as one is likely to find."--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews