The Birth of Purgatory

Rating:
Summary: Promises more than it delivers
Review: In his introductory remarks, LeGoff promises to situate the evolution of the concept of Purgatory in a broad socio-cultural context, and to show how it influenced and was influenced by developments in society's and individuals' self-understanding in the period ca. 1000-1300. Such a micro-analytic material-ideological hermeneutical exegesis would be, IMO, exciting indeed. Alas, where the connections are made, they are only cursorily asserted or alluded to. Although the topic of the birth of Purgatory, i.e., a certain focused change in medieval Christian cosmography, seems a narrow enough subject to cover in 350 pages, this book gives the feeling of almost being "out of breath" in trying to cover too much territory, so that the depth of engagement with the material is not satisfying.