The issue came up Monday evening as the gentleman representing the Roman Catholic position was discussing Roman Catholicism. Somebody called and asked a question about purgatory. He gave his response. There was also a big article in yesterday's edition of the L.A. Times on purgatory and how it has fallen out of favor with many Catholics. One in four polled don't even believe in it.
More Protestants seem to be interested in the notion, which seems kind of ironic.
They give some history of it and of course they quote St. Augustine, who seemed to be in favor of the notion. They quote Macabees which has a reference to it and is a text which the Roman Catholic Church considers canonical. They also quote C.S. Lewis, who identifies what he considers the need for something like purgatory. This is the quote of Lewis' in the L.A. Times . This was the rationale that was offered by the gentleman who defended the notion last week.