Father-Don Purdum

Why the East Never Defined Purgatory

In the medieval West, theology increasingly described salvation in legal categories: guilt, satisfaction, punishment, merit.

Think of the influence of Anselm of Canterbury and the scholastic tradition. Within that framework, Purgatory became dogmatically defined, a necessary post-mortem satisfaction of remaining penalties.

But the Orthodox East began somewhere else.

The Fathers, like Gregory of Nyssa and Isaac the Syrian, speak of salvation not as legal balancing, but as healing. Illumination.

What if salvation is far more than “going to heaven when you die”?

What if Christianity is actually about becoming by grace what Christ is by nature?

That’s the ancient Christian teaching of theosis… deification. And for many Christians, it’s the missing piece that makes the whole Gospel finally come alive.

Too often, we reduce the Christian life to morality, self-improvement, or avoiding sin. But the Fathers of the Church spoke about something much deeper: union with God. Not becoming gods apart from Him, but being transformed by participation in His divine life.