The Persistence of PurgatoryCambridge University Press, 1995 - 209 páginas Why does Western civilization take time so seriously? While various scholars have traced the intensification of time in the West either to the Enlightenment or to the Protestant Ethic, the author traces Western attitudes toward time back to the doctrine and myth of Purgatory. As popular and theological understandings of Purgatory became increasingly secularized, the lifespan of the individual became correspondingly purgatorial. No time could be wasted. The author demonstrates the impact of Purgatory on the preaching of Richard Baxter and William Channing, but he also argues that John Locke's views can only be understood when placed within the context of a belief in Purgatory and the life everlasting. For observers such as Charles Dickens, America itself seemed to be a purgatorial wasteland full of lost and melancholy souls: a place where time is always of the essence. |
Contenido
Acknowledgments page | 1 |
distinguishing the cure for soulloss | 39 |
time as the essence of | 54 |
Baxter Locke and | 73 |
Locke reason and the soul | 93 |
The American purgatory and the state III | 111 |
Protestants and Catholics in the American purgatory | 129 |
Epilogue | 177 |
198 | |
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alien American argue asceticism Baxter become believer burden Canto Catherine of Genoa Catholic Catholicism century Channing charisma Christian church civic clock Cloud of Unknowing continuous culture cure Dante Dante's dead death debts Dickens found divine doctrine of purgatory England essence eternal evangelical everyday experience faith fear future Giles Goff grace heaven human imagination impulse individual individual's institutions intensified John Locke living Locke Locke's lost magic magical thinking masochism masochistic Mehta mind modern societies moral nation Nonetheless noted obligation one's pain parents past penitence Pilgrim's Progress political positive cult prayer presence Protestant punishment purga purified reason religion religious rewards Richard Baxter Sadomasochism saints salvation Scott Fitzgerald secular seek sense shaman sins social character social credit Sommerville soul's souls in purgatory spiritual suffering Tarcov this-worldly Thoughts Concerning Education trial turn tyranny vidual virtue William Ellery Channing