Hells, heavens and afterworlds: a traveller’s guide
HistoryExtra podcast
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Is There a Place for These People?
Purgatory comes from the idea that a, originally, it's what's known as the problem of hell. How can a benevolent god condemn us to an eternity of suffering for just a minor sin? So there must be a place where some one can be purged, can be dry cleaned of those black marks and then they've earned their passage on to heaven. And out of that you get the idea of holy fire, which is as old, and even older than the idea of christian hell itself.
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