Does limbo exist?

[Beorn]

The Limbo of Infants (Latin limbus infantium or limbus puerorum) is a hypothesis about the permanent status of the unbaptized (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism) who die in infancy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infancy), too young to have committed personal sins, but not having been freed from original sin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin). Since at least the time of Augustine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo), theologians, considering baptism to be necessary for the salvation of those to whom it can be administered, have debated the fate of unbaptized innocents, and the theory of the Limbo of Infants is one of the hypotheses that have been formulated as a proposed solution. Some who hold this theory regard the Limbo of Infants as a state of maximum natural happiness, others as one of "mildest punishment" consisting at least of privation of the beatific vision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatific_vision) and of any hope of obtaining it. This theory, in any of its forms, has never been dogmatically defined by the Church, but it is permissible to hold it. Recent Catholic theological speculation tends to stress the hope that these infants may attain heaven instead of the supposed state of Limbo; however, the directly opposed theological opinion also exists, namely that there is no afterlife state intermediate between salvation and damnation, and that all the unbaptized are damned.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference">[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo#cite_note-2)</sup>

What is your position on limbo? Do the unbaptized, aborted, miscarried, etc, reach the sweet touch of Gods love, or do they suffer the inescapable for all eternity?

[Kadu]

What is your position on limbo? Do the unbaptized, aborted, miscarried, etc, reach the sweet touch of Gods love, or do they suffer the inescapable for all eternity?


AFAIK the Catholic church reviewed that matter, the baptism in the present day represents solely the welcoming of the child into the community.

[Poltergeist]

What is your position on limbo? Do the unbaptized, aborted, miscarried, etc, reach the sweet touch of Gods love, or do they suffer the inescapable for all eternity?

God doesn't leave anyone without choice, no-one is "predestined" to hell, as to finish there with no fault of his own. That goes for the miscarried and aborted ones, for victims of infanticide, for those who die unbaptized in infancy, as well as for those who never heard for Christ having lived in different cultural milileux where that message wasn't yet spread.


AFAIK the Catholic church reviewed that matter, the baptism in the present day represents solely the welcoming of the child into the community.

Reviewed? No, just corrected a centuries old ultra-Augustinian aberration from the true spirit of Christianity.

[Loddfafner]

Posts debating the merits of discussing limbo at all have been moved here (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13502). Please keep this thread focused.

[Anthropos]

Limbo was invented by Catholicism and so was Purgatory, filioque and papal infallibility. The Orthodox Church does not have those notions. While the Catholic Church did not assert Limbo doctrinally it did so with all the other notions mentioned. There is more to say though, since (as stated above) the status of Limbo appears to be semi-doctrinal.

It is strange that it is permissible for Catholics to believe in the idea that those who did not get the chance to be baptised will end up in Limbo, because according to the original conception of it Limbo is supposed to be located in hell, having eternal condemnation as an implication, and that idea contradicts a central Christian tenet, namely that God is good and loving; also, it parasites on God's allpowerfulness, leaving up to circumstances the salvation of e.g. newborns.

[Brynhild]

As a former Catholic, I am of the notion that this an utter fabrication which was invented to keep the flock in line, and exploited to its fullest during the times of witch trials and other such nonsense because the establishments of the day feared that people were capable of exercising their own power to think for themselves. Essentially, it was a way of scaring people into submission.

I miscarried twice and I hold no such view of their souls being trapped anywhere. If they were to be born on earth, another time - and perhaps another family - would be chosen. If I had my own time over with my living children, none of them would've been baptised. Blessed, yes, but baptised, no.