Limbo (pronounced lim-boh)
(1)
In (informal) Roman Catholic theology, a region on the border of hell or
heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants (limbo of
infants) and of the righteous who died before the coming of Christ (limbo of
the fathers, or limbo of the patriarchs); often with initial capital letter.
(2)
A place or state of oblivion to which persons or things are regarded as being
relegated when cast aside, forgotten, past, or out of date.
(3)
An intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.
(4)
A place or state of imprisonment or confinement.
(5)
A dance from the West Indies (originally restricted to men), in which the
dancer bends backward from the knees and moves with a shuffling step under a
horizontal bar that is lowered after each successive pass. Among university under-graduates (and other disreputable
types), the activity is now often combined with drinking contests where the
bar's height is inversely proportional to the contestant’s consumption of
alcohol.
(6)
Used loosely, a synonym for oblivion, nothingness or nowhere.
(7)
In the slang of the military slang, a demilitarized zone (DMZ).
(8) A colloquial form used to refer to a Limburger, a person from Limburg (the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands; the French form being Limbourgeois).
1300–1350: From the Middle English, from the Medieval Latin phrase in limbō (“on hell's border” literally “on the edge”), the being construct in + limbō, ablative of limbus (edge, border) the term in Medieval Latin best translated as a “place bordering on hell”. The West Indian English limba (to bend, easily bending) is relatively recent, emerging 1955-1960 and is of uncertain origin but most etymologists suggest it likely came from Jamaica, probably an alteration of limber as it is a test of physical agility. Limbo is a noun & verb, limbo-like is an adjective (limbolike is a registered trademark and thus a noun), limboed & limboing are verbs; the noun plural is limbos or limboes.
Medieval conjecture which became informal theology
Surprisingly, despite the place it has in language and popular imagination, limbo has never formerly been part of Roman Catholic doctrine and was a bit of a medieval fudge. It was championed by Italian Dominican friar, philosopher & theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), taking hold in the western Church and perhaps most influential in the popularity was the Italian Dante (Dante Alighieri (circa 1265–1321) who, in his Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy (circa 1310-1321)) used limbo as the resting place for virtuous pagans. Dante sticks in the mind.
In
April 2007, early in his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) authorized
the publication of “The Hope of Salvation
for Infants Who Die without Being Baptised” which some suggested appeared to
render defunct limbo, the place centuries of tradition and much teaching held was
the place the souls of babies who die without baptism were sent. An explanatory memorandum from the Church’s International Theological Commission accompanied
the document, suggesting it was issued to correct what was “…an unduly
restrictive view of salvation”.
The
commission however stressed there was no change to Church doctrine. It remains Church teaching that baptism
removes original sin which stains all souls since the fall from grace in the
Garden of Eden and that its conclusions should not be interpreted as
questioning original sin or “…used to negate the necessity of baptism or delay
the conferral of the sacrament”.
Instead, the document merely notes “… God is just and merciful and would
not …exclude infants, who have no personal sins, from eternal happiness… from the kingdom of heaven”. It added the need
for publication was not without urgency because the number of “…non-baptised
infants has grown considerably, and therefore the reflection on the possibility
of salvation for these infants has become urgent”.
In
theology, limbo had long been understood in two senses: Firstly (denoted as limbus partum) as the temporary place of rest for the souls of the
just awaiting the salvation of the Messiah and secondly (limbus infantium or limbus
puerorum), as the final state of the souls of those who died without
baptism yet without mortal sin. Because
the Church never officially defined this as doctrine, it’s regarded as theological
supposition or, as Benedict put it “medieval conjecture”, constructed probably
to avoid the creation of a loophole which unworthy sinners and lawyers might
exploit to get into heaven. All the
same, scripture does seem explicit, Jesus teaching that no one “can enter into
God’s kingdom without being begotten of water and Spirit” (John 3:5), thus the old
assertion in the old Catechism that God Himself “…affirms that Baptism is
necessary for salvation.”
In Constantinople, because the Byzantines were never as in thrall of Augustine as they were in Rome, Limbo never really bothered the many but over
the centuries, the issue attracted the attention of notables. Saint Gregory Nazianzen (circa 329–390) implied
somewhere like limbo might exist, believing the unfortunate infants would
neither “…be admitted by the just judge to the glory of Heaven nor condemned to
suffer punishment” and Tertullian (155–circa 220) before and Saint Ambrose (circa
340–397) after, concurred. Saint
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was more stern and said there was no
limbo, there was just Heaven and Hell and that of course unbaptized souls are
sent to Hell because they were born in original sin and nor could they go to Purgatory
since that is a pathway to Heaven. All
he would concede was of those in Hell, the torment of infants would be the
mildest although he didn't go into detail. Eight-hundred odd years later, Aquinas was more generous, noting the original sin was
committed by the parents and not by the child and since (1) Hell was the place where
unrepentant mortal sinners are sent for eternal punishment (2) only the
baptized could enter Heaven, then (3) the souls of unbaptized children must go somewhere
else and here was the (admittedly shaky) foundation of limbo. In a quite modern flourish, Aquinas helpfully
added that because they’d never been born, the infants would never have learned
of the glories of Heaven so, not knowing what they’d missed, they’d probably
find limbo rather nice. It was a fudge worthy of any Lambeth conference.
The issue
didn’t go away and in the eighteenth century, a radical group of
neo-Augustinites, a kind of Romish version of the Republican Party's Freedom Caucus and known as the Jansenists, rejected
limbo, the idea of which had for hundreds of years provided comfort to grieving
parents, forcing Pope Pius VI (1717–1799; pope 1775-1799) in 1794 to issue the
Papal Bull Auctorem Fidei (Of our Faith), condemning, inter alia, the denial that
there is a place “which the faithful generally designate by the name of limbo
for children”. It was a rare official
mention of limbo but well short of a definitive statement. Interest was renewed in the twentieth century
but Pope Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958), hardly one fond of radical
change, in 1943 issued a statement in the Holy See’s periodic gazette again neither
defining nor rejecting limbo.
So,
press releases aside, the commission’s document suggests in the eight
centuries between Aquinas and Benedict XVI, in limbo, not much has changed; the Catechism
still asserts only that children who die before baptism are entrusted into the
mercy of God. Benedict XVI, no stranger
to dancing on the head of a pin, seemed both to clarify and cloud the waters by
saying limbo was only ever “medieval conjecture” and given there is no explicit
answer from Scripture, people seem still free to make of it what they will.
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