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Part 1
Religious Approaches to Death and Afterlife
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1
Catholic views of the afterlife
Diana Walsh Pasulka
An important focus, if not the very heart, of Catholicism is eschatology, or the study of final things. Traditionally, there have been four “final things” pertaining to human lives: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its universal form, is an authoritative document that clarifies the Church’s teachings regarding these matters. Beyond that, literature, poetry, theology, and private revelation have historically provided images and insights into these realms that, even as they remain mysterious, compel reflection and consideration.
Death
For Catholics, death is a gateway to other abodes, an entry to heaven, hell, or purgatory. During the medieval era, European Catholics hoped to achieve a good death, that is, a death consciously sustained with hope that one’s soul would endure a judgment that rendered it either fit for purgatory or heaven. Death, often personified in medieval chronicles and illustrations as a skeleton, was responsible for escorting a soul to its particular judgment. This process was complicated, and medieval Catholics had recourse to guides, or books of the dead, that prescribed prayers and supplications in order to help souls on their journey, as demons and angels lay in wait for the soul recently liberated from its body.
More recently, advances in medical technology and research have impacted the Catholic understanding of death. End-of-life issues, including the use of ordinary or extraordinary procedures to either extend or end life, continue to be important areas of consideration for all Catholics. In particular, euthanasia, or the assisted suicide of people who are deemed to be suffering too much, or are terminally ill, has been condemned on multiple occasions by the Catholic Church and its governing bodies. The Second Vatican Council, convened in the 1960s, declared that euthanasia was a crime against life as the Catholic faith maintains the belief that life is a gift from God. In 1980, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, a governing body of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a statement on euthanasia that reaffirmed the declaration of the Vatican Council that it was a crime against life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also condemns euthanasia: “Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable” (CCC: 2277.)
The Declaration on Euthanasia also demarcates the terms for assessing end-of-life care. It describes ordinary means of extending and abetting life when issues of death arise, and also extraordinary or heroic means, and recommends that families make endof-life decisions with full knowledge of Catholic teaching on the subject in addition to current medical research. The statement ends with clarification that death is a gateway to other realms of existence. “It is true that death marks the end of our earthly existence, but at the same time it opens the door to immortal life” (Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Declaration on Euthanasia).
Although medieval books of the dead are no longer used to assist a person who is at the end of life, last rites, or a series of sacraments known as the last rites including the Viaticum – or the last administration of the body of Christ, the Eucharist – are an important means to assist the dying Catholic. Catholic faith maintains that the soul separates from the body at the moment of death. Although this seems to imply a dualism (that is, that the soul conceived as spirit is separate from the body, which is matter), the Church clarifies that this is not so, as the human being “made of body and soul, is a unity” (CCC: 364.) The soul will leave the body at the time of death, but will be reunited with the body at the end of time for the final resurrection. Despite official assertions that affirm the unity of spirit and matter, devotional literature and even scriptural references seem to imply a separation of matter from spirit. St. Paul (in I Thessalonians 5:23) demarcates soul from body and spirit, and medieval scholastic theologians such as William of Auvergne and Thomas Aquinas addressed the nature of spirit and matter and its apparent separation.
This abstract matter was brought to a practical head in 1963 when the Church lifted a ban on the cremation of the dead. Prior to this, the body of a deceased Catholic was to be present at the funeral mass and buried in the earth, in order to preserve the dignity of the body for the final resurrection and to affirm the unity of soul and body. Even as the ban was lifted, the ashes of the cremated remains of a loved one could not be present in proxy for the real body at the funeral mass. This was changed in 1997 and the cremated remains of a loved one can now be present at their funeral mass.
Judgment
The Catholic tradition has always maintained two judgments after death: a particular judgment of the individual soul based on its merits, and a universal, or last judgment, after the dead have been resurrected. At the last judgment the soul will be reunited with its body, and Catholics believe that Jesus will return to the world accompanied by angels. As depicted in the New Testament (Matthew 24) and professed by practitioners in the Apostles’ Creed, Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. The last judgment has had a rich tradition of artistic expression. It has been painted by Michelangelo, William Blake, and other artists attracted to the drama, violence, and triumph of the last scene of human history. The last judgment is also the interface between mortality and immortality, the end of history and the beginning of a new world, and as such it marks the beginning of a sacred era. It is simultaneously cosmological and subjective, as it not only depicts the end of universal time and space, but also reveals what was previously hidden within the individual psyches of all people – the evil and faults of individual human natures, which will be exposed to the light of day.
At the end of human life, when the individual soul is separated from its body, it undergoes a particular judgment. The Catechism states that the individual soul will be judged according to its faith and works. The devotional tradition has represented this moment in various ways, with artists and authors often preferring to depict the horror of the soul condemned to everlasting punishment instead of the soul destined for everlasting joy. Part of the reason for this is purely didactic, as representations of souls reaping the negative consequences of their actions in life were used as teaching tools by clergy and as warnings to practitioners. Scholastics like theologian William of Auvergne determined that God, in special cases, allowed souls from hell or purgatory to return to earth so that they could serve as warnings to the living (de Mayo 2006: 140–141). Much devotional literature from the medieval time period until the nineteenth century contains narratives of this sort. A detail from Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel depicts a soul facing its fate, which in this case is hell. Regret permeates the features of the soul, which is depicted as a man. These anecdotes and illustrations, horrible as they were, were a persuasive means to encourage practitioners to refrain from sin.
Hell
Hell is the abode or destination of souls who have rejected, of their own free will, God’s love and will suffer eternal punishment. The Church affirms that the main punishment in hell is separation from God, but it is also depicted as an “unquenchable fire” and as a “furnace of fire” (CCC: 1034). Beyond this description, representations of hell have changed through time. Scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, described hell as a having four abodes of suffering with a lower level devoted entirely to the punishment of souls (Aquinas, Supplement: Question 69). The other levels consist of two limbos, or borders of hell, one for unbaptized infants and another for the saints of the Old Testament, and another level reserved for purifying sinners who are destined for heaven (purgatory) (Ansgar Kelly 2010: 121). Not long after Aquinas wrote about hell, Dante Alighieri, in his famous poem the Divine Comedy, portrayed hell in the first part, called Inferno.
Few texts have had more influence on Western conceptions of hell than the Inferno. Dante describes nine rings, or circles, of hell beginning with a version of limbo, reserved for unbaptized infants and for non-Christians who were good but did not hear the Gospel and were therefore also unbaptized. This circle is garden-like and, although it is a part of hell, the punishment is benign – its inhabitants cannot enjoy the beatific vision of God that is reserved for those in heaven. In a sense, Dante’s limbo is a less perfect version of heaven. This is not the case for the other eight circles of hell, however. Each sin is punished in a way suited to its nature. For example, gluttons must wallow in a rainy slush that represents the putrefied food and drink that they consumed in abundance in life. They are so focused on their own pain that they cannot recognize that they are suffering alongside others who suffer the same fate.
After the nineteenth century, hell and the idea of eternal punishment diminished in theological speculations regarding the afterlife. Although the Catholic faith still maintains that the final destination of unrepentant sinners is hell, emphasis on its tortures and punishments has waned. Popular representations of hell continue to dominate mass culture, however, and it is interesting that several of the most popular horror films feature hell and themes of hell, such as The Exorcist (1973). But, what of the reality of hell? On this topic, Pope Benedict XVI was very clear: hell exists. In 2007 he told a gathering of Catholics and bishops that hell “really exists and is eternal” (The Times: 14).
Purgatory
In addition to hell, purgatory is a destination for souls that are marked by sin and therefore are not pure enough to enter heaven upon their separation from the body at the time of death. Purgatory is a precursor to heaven, reserved for souls who are ultimately destined for heaven. It is a place of purification, where souls are purified of their sins so that they may enter heaven. Purgatory was not defined as an afterlife destination until the thirteenth century, yet its existence was supported by practices of praying for the dead, stories and anecdotes, and theological speculation. The official recognition of purgatory would seem to come late in Catholic history, yet, as Isabel Moreira notes, “before these conciliar pronouncements, purgatory’s existence was hardly doubted. For centuries purgatory’s features and purpose were fleshed out by religious groups, political players, writers, poets, visionaries, and by clerics and ordinary people telling ghost stories” (Moreira 2011: 5).
What, exactly, is purgatory? It has been defined in various ways. Until the nineteenth century, it was defined as a place of purification distinguished by physical fire. Moreira writes that purgatory was “a place for the purification of the elect; the fire cleanses (spiritual) pollution from the soul; additionally, the fire chastises so that purification is accomplished through the punishment of Christian bodies” (Moreira 2011: 17). Moreover, the punishment can continue until the last judgment “unless the sinner is absolved from punishment through the intercession of friends” (Moreira 2011: 17). Therefore, living persons are able to ameliorate or even lessen the pains of those suffering in purgatory through various means – by praying, through alms-giving, and by attending a Catholic mass or service dedicated to a particular soul, or for souls in general. For hundreds of years Catholics of means dedicated funds, as specified in their wills, to cover the costs of having masses performed for the benefit of easing the sufferings of their souls in purgatory.
In the medieval era, purgatory’s physical place was the subject of much speculation. Popular texts such as the Treatise of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory (c. 1180) contributed to the belief that purgatory was on earth and might even have been located in Ireland. The hero of the Treatise, a knight of the crusades named Owen, journeys through the portal of purgatory, located in Northern Ireland. There, the text indicates that he encounters demons, angels, and souls from purgatory. He escapes death and the mouth of hell and emerges from purgatory free from sin. A Cistercian monk named H. recounted Owen’s tale for an enthusiastic audience, and the Treatise rose in prominence to become the medieval equivalent of a best-selling novel. It also inspired many pilgrimages to the purgatory portal in Ireland, which was a cave traditionally located on Station Island, by European Catholics, spanning the ranks of elite to peasantry, who endured its torments in hopes of either meeting their deceased relatives or purging their sins.
The idea that purgatory was a place on earth, however, did present some theological and philosophical problems. William of Auvergne and Thomas Aquinas debated the physicality of purgatory, where it was, the nature of its punishments, and whether or not souls from purgatory could visit the living. This was against the backdrop of a worldview where visits from souls in purgatory to the living were thought possible and were frequently represented in popular culture as anecdotes and stories. Stories circulated in written and oral discourse that depicted souls, in chains or on fire, appearing to friends and family and requesting masses and prayers to lessen their torments (The Treatise of St. Patrick’s Purgatory). While some of these stories no doubt emerged spontaneously among believers, they were often utilized by clergy to motivate practitioners to avoid sin and to have masses performed and prayers said for their deceased relatives.
The doctrine of purgatory was linked to the popular Catholic practice of the selling of indulgences. An indulgence is a certificate or grant from the pope that remits the temporal punishment of a sin that has been forgiven but would normally incur punishment for a soul in purgatory. During the medieval and early modern eras, indulgences came under attack from Catholics who believed that the economy of buying and selling indulgences was being abused. In 1517, on the night of All Hallows’ Eve, a monk named Martin Luther nailed his now famous ninety-five theses, or points of critique, to a Catholic Church. This act instigated a series of developments that contributed to the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century (Walsh Pasulka 2014: 88).
In the nineteenth century, Catholic doctrine was subject to attacks by Protestant polemicists and by the secularizing influences of the French Enlightenment. The empirical sciences as well as exploration by mariners suggested that finding purgatory or any other afterlife destination on earth was ultimately futile. But where was purgatory? This question continued to vex Catholic theologians as depictions of purgatory on earth or in the middle of the earth figured in many popular magazines and provided fodder for those quick to point out the folly of placing purgatory near, on, or in the earth. Catholic convert and priest Frederick William Faber (1814–18...
