Can Purgatory Help? Reflections from Dramatic Theology in the Context of the Abuse Crisis

Abstract

In the search for justice, many survivors of sexual abuse encounter the difficulty that their tormentors have already died. In such cases legal justice cannot work and a personal confrontation is impossible. Christian faith holds that there is a final reckoning. However, recent theology and pastoral practice have rightly emphasized God’s mercy and forgiveness so much that the idea of justice has seemingly been rejected, to such an extent that the idea of a last reckoning is lost, creating yet another barrier to justice for survivors. In my article I develop a model for the last judgment that closely relates it to the idea of purgatory. If the last judgment and purgatory are imagined in a certain way, this can help us to see that survivors of sexual abuse will indeed be heard there and justice will be done, while the hope for a universal salvation can still be sustained.