Deconstructing Purgatory

The second in a series on ideas about death and the possibility of life beyond. For almost 500 years Purgatory was a cornerstone of Christian faith in Western Europe.  Many considered it a physical place that could be entered at certain portals on our earth.  Dismantling Purgatory in Protestant England involved not only theologians, but also teams of lawyers. One of the ironies in the history of religion is how early Universalists in North America tried to reconstruct the idea in the 19th century.