Product Code Database
The unofficial term Limbo (, or , referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition in medieval Catholic theology, of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. However, it has become the general term to refer to nothing between time and space in general.
Some medieval theologians of Western Europe described the underworld ("hell", "hades", "infernum") as divided into three distinct parts: Hell of the Damned, Catholic Encyclopedia: Hell: "However, in the New Testament the term Gehenna is used more frequently in preference to hades, as a name for the place of punishment of the damned.... held in abomination by the Jews, who, accordingly, used the name of this valley to designate the abode of the damned (Targ. Jon., Gen., iii, 24; Henoch, c. xxvi). And Christ adopted this usage of the term." Jewish Encyclopedia: Gehenna: Sin and Merit: "It is frequently said that certain sins will lead man into Gehenna. The name "Gehenna" itself is explained to mean that unchastity will lead to Gehenna (; 'Er. 19a); so also will adultery, idolatry, pride, mockery, hypocrisy, anger, etc. (Soṭah 4b, 41b; Ta'an. 5a; B. B. 10b, 78b; 'Ab. Zarah 18b; Ned. 22a)." Limbo of the Fathers or Patriarchs, and Limbo of the Infants.
The Limbo of the Fathers is the state or place for people who were friends of God but died before the death of Jesus Christ; when Jesus died he descended into hell and rescued the souls of those who had died before him: this is traditionally known as the harrowing of hell.
The Limbo of the Infants was the hope that just because a child died before baptism, it does not mean they deserve punishment (or are developed enough to be cognizant of separation from God), though they cannot have full salvation (or experience the Beatific Vision.) The Limbo of the Infants is neither affirmed nor denied by Catholic doctrine.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes Christ's descent into Hell as meaning primarily that "the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into Hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead." It adds: "But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there." It does not use the word Limbo. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 633
This concept of Limbo affirms that admittance to heaven is possible only through the intervention of Jesus Christ, but does not portray Moses, etc. as being punished eternally in Hell. The concept of Limbo of the Patriarchs is not spelled out in Scripture, but is seen by some as implicit in various references:
According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, unlike Purgatory and Hell, in the Limbo of Patriarchs there was not the penalty of sense (the affliction by fire in which the soul burns after death and also the body after the resurrection of the flesh), but solely the penalty of harm, which is the privation of the beatific vision of God. Commentus in Libros Quattuor Sententiarum, d. 22, q. 2, a. 1 However, the souls in Limbo of Patriarchs enjoyed the natural knowledge of God and experienced great joy because of the future glory that awaited them in Paradise. Summa Theologiae III, 52,5,ad1.
While the Catholic Church has a defined doctrine on original sin, it has none on the eternal fate of unbaptised infants, leaving theologians free to propose different theories, which magisterium is free to accept or reject. Nonetheless, according to Catholic dogma, baptism, or at least the desire for it, along with supernatural faith or at least the "habit of faith", are necessary for salvation. Hence, it is not immediately clear how to reconcile the mercy of God for unbaptized infants with the necessity of baptism and Catholic faith for salvation. Several theories have been proposed. Limbo is one such theory, Study by International Theological Commission, 22 April 2007, 32–40 although the word limbo itself is never mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1261 Nonetheless, the theory of limbo has weighty support in the traditional teaching of the Doctors of the Church, such as Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Augustine, and Saint Alphonsus Liguori.
In 418, the Council of Carthage, a synod of North African bishops which included Augustine of Hippo, did not explicitly endorse all aspects of Augustine's stern view about the destiny of infants who die without baptism, but stated in some manuscripts Study by the International Theological Commission, 22 April 2007, footnote 41] "that there is no intermediate or other happy dwelling place for children who have left this life without Baptism, without which they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, that is, eternal life". Canon 110 of the Code of Canons of the African Church Study by the International Theological Commission, 22 April 2007, 19] So great was Augustine's influence in the West, however, that the Latin Fathers of the 5th and 6th centuries (e.g., Jerome, Avitus of Vienne, and Gregory the GreatThe subject of children who die prematurely is also dealt with by Gregory of Nyssa in his work entitled Ad Hierium Cappadociae prefectum de infantibus qui praematurae abripiuntur (
If heaven is a state of supernatural happiness and union with God, and Hell is understood as a state of torture and separation from God then, in this view, the Limbo of Infants, although technically part of hell (the outermost part, limbo meaning 'outer edge' or 'hem') is seen as a sort of intermediate state.
The question of Limbo is not treated in the parts of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas, but is dealt with in an appendix to the supplement added after his death compiled from his earlier writings. The Limbo of Infants is there described as an eternal state of natural joy, untempered by any sense of loss at how much greater their joy might have been had they been baptised:
The natural happiness possessed in this place would consist in the perception of God mediated through creatures.Feingold, Lawrence. The Natural Desire to See God According to St. Thomas and His Interpreters. 2nd edition. Ave Maria: Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University. 2010. As stated in the International Theological Commission's document on the question:
The afterdeath life cartography that runs through Christian thought from Bernard of Clairvaux to Aquinas is thus composed of five real and physical places: Paradise, Limbo of Patriarchs, Limbo of the Infants, Purgatory and Hell.
However, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, individual theologians (Bianchi in 1768, H. Klee in 1835, Caron in 1855, H. Schell in 1893) continued to formulate theories of how children who died unbaptised might still be saved. By 1952 a theologian such as Ludwig Ott could, in a widely used and well-regarded manual, openly teach the possibility that children who die unbaptised might be saved for heaven."Other emergency means of baptism for children dying without sacramental baptism, such as prayer and the desire of the parents or the Church (vicarious baptism of desire – Cajetan), or the attainment of the use of reason in the moment of death, so that the dying child can decide for or against God (baptism of desire – H. Klee), or suffering and death of the child as quasi-Sacrament (baptism of suffering – H. Schell), are indeed possible, but their actuality cannot be proved from Revelation. Cf. Denzinger 712." Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Book 2, Section 2, § 25 (p. 114 of the 1963 edition) He also told about Thomas Cajetan, a major 16th-century theologian, that suggested infants dying in the womb before birth, and so before ordinary sacramental baptism could be administered, might be saved through their mother's wish for their baptism. In its 1980 instruction on children's baptism the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that "with regard to children who die without having received baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as indeed she does in the funeral rite established for them", leaving all theories as to their fate, including Limbo, as viable possibilities. In 1984, when Joseph Ratzinger, then Cardinal Prefect of that Congregation, stated that he rejected the claim that children who die unbaptised cannot attain salvation, he was speaking for many academic theologians of his training and background.
The Church's teaching, expressed in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that "Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament", and that "God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments". It recalls that, apart from the sacrament, baptism of blood (as in the case of Christian martyrs) and in the case of catechumens who die before receiving the sacrament, explicit desire for baptism, together with Catholic faith, repentance for their sins (specifically perfect contrition, in the case of catechumens) and charity, ensures salvation. It also states that since Christ died for all and all are called to the same divine destiny, "every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved", seeing that, if they had known of the necessity of baptism, they would have desired it explicitly. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1257–1260 Additionally, at the Council of Trent and in the Vatican's response to Feeneyism in the 1940s, the Church affirmed in every case the necessity of Catholic faith (also called "supernatural faith"), or at least the "habit of faith", for salvation.
It then states:
Merely stating that one can "hope" in a way of salvation other than baptism, the Church thus urgently reiterates its appeal to baptize infants, the only certain means to "not prevent" their "coming to Christ" for salvation.
On 20 April 2007, the advisory body known as the International Theological Commission released a document, originally commissioned by Pope John Paul II, entitled "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without Being Baptized." The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without Being Baptised, ITC, 22 April 2007. After tracing the history of the various opinions that have been and are held on the eternal fate of unbaptized infants, including that connected with the theory of the Limbo of Infants, and after examining the theological arguments, the document stated its conclusion as follows:
Pope Benedict XVI authorized publication of this document, indicating that he considers it consistent with the Church's teaching, though it is not an official expression of that teaching.Catholic News Service (20 April 2007). "Vatican commission: Limbo reflects 'restrictive view of salvation'". Retrieved 20 April 2007. Media reports that by the document "the Pope closed Limbo" are thus without foundation. In fact, the document explicitly states that "the theory of limbo ... never entered into the dogmatic definitions of the Magisterium. Still, that same Magisterium did at times mention the theory in its ordinary teaching up until the Second Vatican Council. It remains therefore a possible theological hypothesis". The document thus allows the limbo hypothesis to be held as one of the existing theories about the fate of children who die without being baptised, a question on which there is "no explicit answer" from Scripture or tradition. The traditional theological alternative to Limbo was not heaven, but rather some degree of suffering in Hell. At any rate, these theories are not the official teaching of the Catholic Church but rather opinions that the Church permits to be held by its members, just as is the theory of possible salvation for infants dying without baptism.
Some Protestants have a similar understanding of those who died as believers prior to the crucifixion of Jesus residing in a place that is not Heaven, but not Hell. The doctrine holds that Hades has two "compartments", one an unnamed place of torment, the other named "Abraham's bosom". Luke 16:19–16:26 speaks of a chasm fixed between the two which cannot be crossed. Those in the unnamed "compartment" have no hope, and will ultimately be consigned to hell. Those in Abraham's bosom are those of whom it is written of Jesus, "When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives" (Ephesians 4:8), quoting Psalm 68:18). These individuals, the captives, now reside with God in Heaven. Both "Compartments" still exist, but Abraham's bosom is now empty, while the other chamber is not, according to this doctrine.
Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, and others have taught that the soul sleep (or even nonexistent), awaiting their destiny on Judgment Day.
Study by the International Theological Commission, 22 April 2007, 20
Medieval theologians
In the later Medieval period, some theologians continued to hold Augustine's view. In the 12th century, Peter Abelard (1079–1142) said that these infants suffered no material torment or positive punishment, just the pain of loss at being denied the beatific vision. Others held that unbaptised infants suffered no pain at all: unaware of being deprived of the beatific vision, they enjoyed a state of natural, not supernatural happiness. This theory was associated with but independent of the term "Limbo of Infants", which was coined about the year 1300. Study by the International Theological Commission, 22 April 2007, 21–25]
Modern era
In 1442, the Ecumenical Council of Florence spoke of baptism as necessary even for children, and required that they be baptised soon after birth. Council of Florence Session 11 (Bull Cantate Domino): "With regard to children, since the danger of death is often present and the only remedy available to them is the sacrament of baptism by which they are snatched away from the dominion of the devil and adopted as children of God, it admonishes that sacred baptism is not to be deferred for forty or eighty days or any other period of time" This had earlier been affirmed at the Council of Carthage in 418. The Council of Florence also stated that those who die in original sin alone go to Hell, but with pains unequal to those suffered by those who had committed actual mortal sins. Council of Florence Session 6 "...the souls of those who depart this life in actual mortal sin, or in original sin alone, go down straight away to hell to be punished, but with unequal pains." John Wycliffe's attack on the necessity of infant baptism was condemned by another general council, the Council of Constance.Session 15, 6 July 1415 In 1547, the Council of Trent explicitly decreed that baptism (or desire for baptism) was the means by which one is transferred "from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace, and of the adoption of the sons of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Pope Pius X taught of Limbo's existence in his Catechism.
In other denominations and religions
Judaism
While Jewish sources are conflicted about what happens to individuals after they die, the concept of limbo does not arise. Furthermore, even the conception of Hell in Judaism is presented as a temporary stage, typically transpiring over a short period of time. Rose, O. N. (n.d.). "Heaven and Hell in Jewish Tradition". My Jewish Learning. Accessed 23 January 2024. According to Talmud, the judgment of the wicked in Gehenna lasts for twelve months. BT Shab. 33b. This teaching is attributed to Rabbi Akiva (50-135 AD). Mishnah Eduyot 2:10.
Christianity
Protestant and Eastern Orthodox
Neither the Eastern Orthodox Church nor Protestantism accepts the concept of a limbo of infants; but, while not using the expression "Limbo of the Patriarchs", the Eastern Orthodox Church lays much stress on the resurrected Christ's action of liberating Adam and Eve and other righteous figures of the Old Testament, such as Abraham and David, from Hades (see Harrowing of Hell).
Nontrinitarian
Latter-day Saints teach that "there is a space between death and the resurrection of the body... a state of the soul in happiness or in misery until the time... that the dead shall come forth, and be reunited, both soul and body, and be brought to stand before God, and be judged according to their works." Alma 40:21 See Spirit world (Latter Day Saints) It is also taught that "all who have died without a knowledge of the gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God.". D&C 137:7 See Baptism for the Dead
Zoroastrianism
The Zoroastrian concept of hamistagan is similar to Limbo. Hamistagan is a neutral state in which a soul that was neither good nor evil awaits Judgment Day.
Islam
In Islam, which denies the existence of original sin in totality, the concept of Limbo exists as , the state that exists after death, prior to the day of resurrection. During this period, sinners are punished and the adequately purified rest in comfort. Children, however, are exempt from this stage, as they are regarded as innocent and are automatically classed as Muslims (despite religious upbringing). After death, they go directly to Heaven, where they are cared for by Abraham. Al-Bukhary, Volume 9, Book 88, Number 171 According to Christian Louis Lange, Islam also possesses a (cf. Q.7:46) "a residual place or limbo" situated between heaven and hell where there is "neither punishment nor reward".
Greek mythology
In Classical Greek mythology, the section of Hades known as the Asphodel Meadows were a realm much resembling Limbo, to which the vast majority of people who were held to have deserved neither the Elysium (Heaven) nor Tartarus (Hell) were consigned for eternity.
Buddhism
In Buddhism, Bardo (Sanskrit: ) is sometimes described as similar to limbo. It is an intermediate state in which the recently deceased experiences various phenomena before being reborn in another state, including heaven or hell. According to Mahāyāna Buddhism, the arhat must ultimately embrace the path of the bodhisattva, despite having reached enlightenment. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra states that an arhat obtains a () and is reborn in a lotus in a transitory state of existence, unable to awaken for a whole eon. This is likened to a person intoxicated who must spend a certain period of time before becoming sober. (2025). 9781477150443, Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 9781477150443
See also
External links
|
|
