Just read Great Divorce. Thanks for the recommendation. I liked most of it very much. Interesting that he considers it possible to be saved even after death. My impression was that purgatory was only for those who were already saved, but had some venial (?) sins to expiate. I wasn't convinced, however, that most people are so wedded to their sins that they would cling to them even with heaven in front of them, as a real and tangible thing. He didn't make the difficulty of such a choice plausible. Otherwise, it was an excellent piece of writing and I look forward to reading more of his work.
Sincerely,
Mark
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Dear Mark,
I am glad you liked Great Divorce. It is a book I have read many times. Right now I am trying to read (and listen to tapes of) the Divine Comedy. Seems to me that Dante also dealt with the question of how ones sins could result in damnation and how our decisions in this life could determine our eternal fate in the next.
What C.S. Lewis book will you be reading next?
Prayers,
Fr. Phil Bloom
P.S. Your impression about purgatory being only for those saved was correct. In the Great Divorce those who stayed in hell were those who clung to their own justification.
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Jesus Teaching Concerning Heaven
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Human Cloning: A Catholic Perspective (How the Unthinkable Became Inevitable)
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Stephen Jay Gould: Gorbachev of Darwinism?
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