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Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation. By Jerry L. Walls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, xiv + 211 pp., $35.00.
Jerry L. Walls is without embarrassment a Protestant who believes in purgatory. And his most recent book, Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation, which finishes his trilogy on the afterlife, is his theological apologetic for it.
Walls begins with a detailed survey of the history of purgatory, starting with pagan philosophers, moving next to a very brief treatment of the biblical text (specifically highlighting what texts advocates have appealed to), then tracing the doctrine from the patristic period to the twenty-first century. Though Walls admits that purgatory was not officially affirmed until the Second Council of Lyons (1274), he is convinced that the doctrine has a rich heritage prior to Lyons.
Chapter two evaluates Protestant objections to purgatory, including both Reformed and Wesleyan traditions. Walls's rejection of the Reformed view is no surprise, but what is fascinating is his critique of his own Wesleyan heritage. Walls believes that adopting purgatory resolves the tension in Wesleyanism between the need to reach entire sanctification and instant glorification at death. The Wesleyan affirmation of glorification as a unilateral, instantaneous act of God at death smacks of Calvinism. Rather, argues Walls, would Wesleyanism not be more consistent to affirm purgatory, whereby the sinner continues his cooperation with God until he reaches entire sanctification? Walls is dumbfounded by John Wesley's reasons for rejecting purgatory, namely, Wesley agreed with his Reformed counterparts that the doctrine is "contrary to Scripture and antiquity." Furthermore, for Wesley, justification meant that there no longer is condemnation; therefore, the believer is justified when he leaves this world and will have nothing laid at his charge in the life hereafter. Walls rebukes Wesley for thinking of salvation primarily in terms of justification.
But lest we think the advocacy of purgatory is uniform, Walls reminds us in the third chapter that there are three views: (1) the satisfaction model, (2) the satisfaction/ sanctification model, and (3) the sanctification model. In the satisfaction model, guilt may be cleansed by contrition, but punishment remains and must be dealt with; hence, the need for punishment not only in this life, but also in purgatory, where one will finish paying the penalty...