GOD's PRISONERS: PENAL CONFINEMENT AND THE CREATION OF PURGATORY

This essay explores two events that occurred in the thirteenth century: the decree normalizing the prison as the fundamental disciplinary apparatus in the first universal system of law (canon law) and the formal recognition by the Catholic Church of the existence of Purgatory. It will be suggested that this simultaneity was far from coincidental. The penal colony known as Purgatory reflected in nearly exact detail the contours of the earthly prison. Implications for modern theology will then be discussed.     

NOT EXPLANATION BUT SALVATION: SCIENTIFIC THEOLOGY, CHRISTOLOGY, AND SUFFERING

The view that Christian belief is explanatory is widespread in contemporary theology, apologetics, and philosophy of religion and it has received particular impetus from attempts to correlate science and Christianity. This article proposes an account of explanatory thinking in theology based on the principle that theological explanations should be disciplined by the internal logic of Scripture. Arthur Peacocke's biologically construed Christology and Alister McGrath's argument that suffering is an anomaly in the Christian explanatory scheme are shown to yield theological results which are inconsistent with this principle. This article's theological argument complements philosophical criticisms of the view that religious belief is explanatory.