PURGATORY: TO THE QUESTION OF GENESIS AND TRANSFORMATION (HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS STUDY ANALYSIS)

The article is devoted to some issues of the formation and transformation of the purgatory doctrine in Catholic philosophical and theological thought. Two aspects of this phenomenon are considered: the probable influence of other religions on the formation of the Christian idea of purgatory and the regress of the retributive component in the concept of purgatory in the modern era. Through a historical-religious analysis the author tests the hypothesis about the influence of other religions on the formation of the Christian doctrine of purgatory. Particular attention is paid to the Zoroastrian idea of a separate place for the middle category of souls. The author comes to the conclusion that, despite a number of common features, the two doctrines reveal significant differences, which does not give us the right to speak about direct borrowing.In the second part of the article the question of regress of the concept of punitive retribution relative to purgatory is examined. The author reproduces the classical doctrinal system of the purgatory presented in Thomism and compares it with the variation of the doctrine that is represented in modern documents of the Catholic Church. The author holds the opinion that the doctrine of purgatory was formed in the environment of theological legalism and is by its nature a penitentiary concept. The classical concept of purgatory provides that purification is done through punishment.This concept may be called a "satisfaction model". However, in modern Catholic thought there is a departure from this model in favor of the other. The author claims that now the traditional retributive model of hell – and purgatory has always belonged to the infernal region – is experiencing its decline as a result of deep transformations in the ethical, axiological and legal sphere. Catholic doctrine of purgatory reflects a general tendency to eliminate the retributive element from infernology. According to modern documents of the Catholic Church, purgatory is now understood as a state/place where a person must experience the deep inner transformation necessary to join the divine being. This understanding of purgatory may be called the "sanctification model". Now the Catholic Church is trying to combine these approaches with a noticeable predominance of the second approach. The author believes that in the logical-rational area the indicated connection leads to an imbalance of the entire system, since there are serious internal differences between these approaches.