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In the Twinkling of an Eye

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Purgatory

Abstract

This paper takes on the challenge of reconciling two seemingly contradictory claims: posthumous sanctification requires a process and takes place in a moment. We argue that, even if time is required, it need not be a great deal of time. Much change can happen quickly; indeed, an elaborate process need not take much time. If time were to become objectively slower, or the person’s impediments to clear thinking and deliberation were removed and time subjectively seems to slow from the perspective of the agent transforming, an elaborate process is consistent with a short interval. In such ways we articulate a story according to which the interval of a sanctification model of Purgatory is possibly very short, and the two aforementioned desiderata can both be satisfied.

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Baggett, D., Pruitt, J. (2017). In the Twinkling of an Eye. In: Vanhoutte, K., McCraw, B. (eds) Purgatory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57891-0_4

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