The Soul of Christianity : Restoring the Great Tradition, by Huston Smith

I've only had this book checked out for about 7 weeks. There's just an awful lot in it and I have to take long breaks between passages. It has been enlightening and engaging, a strong reminder that Christians come from a long tradition, shared by ALL who believe in Christ as the Savior of humanity. I may buy this book so I can refer to it.

One of the striking things I found, towards the end, was a description of purgatory which I found fascinating: "...a temporary abode where souls are punished for sins that have not yet been forgiven." Sort of a slanted version of people being remembered after their death: as long as we have memories of someone they don't actually die. But by dwelling on the negative memories, we keep them from making the jump into heaven. Kind of empowering and frightening: who wants to be responsible for that?

Then again, people like Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Ivan the Terrible...they'll never make it to heaven, will they?