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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Purgatory

Tagged: Theme.

Place of Afterlife expiation where, according to Catholic doctrine, sinners are purged by a period of disciplinary suffering before admission to Heaven. It is often assumed as a "given" in Christian Fantasy. Dante's Purgatorio (see also Taproot Texts) has the classic depiction: a conical mountain with successively higher circular ledges where various degrees of "refining fire" are joyfully submitted to – the 1955 Dorothy L Sayers (1893-1957) translation adds useful Maps. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1933-2017) annexe Hell as the "violent ward" of Purgatory in Inferno (1975), allowing even the damned a slim chance of Heaven. C S Lewis's The Great Divorce (1946) considers a similar opportunity but focuses on purgatory as a transition rather than a place – a stripping-away of comforting spiritual baggage like selfishness or excessive sexual desire. Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality sequence fuses purgatory with Limbo as a painless but dull region where the celestial civil service toils eternally (see As Above, So Below). [DRL]



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