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Kosta, your 8393 requires no "quality control." I think you put it all very accurately and beautifully.

It is really hard to describe exactly the difference between Catholic and Orthodox approaches, but they are very real and acute in our eyes.

I think that the most important thing that you touch on is that in general, we consider theologoumena to be not a part of Orthodox tradition or belief. Truly Orthodox belief is marked by essential agreement on even the details, throughout the entirety of Orthodoxy. This includes agreement regarding what details we believe are unknowable and must remain undefined and unextrapolated because they were *never* revealed -- such as defining the "intermediate state" of the soul after death.

I do not think that the difference between our beliefs about the soul after death and the Catholic beliefs are the result of the challenge of Protestantism in the West, any more than I believe that the filioque wasn't inserted into the Creed in the East because the East didn't have a problem with Arianism! (Leaving aside the question of whether the filioque really helps combat Arianism...)

My impression of Catholicism, especially today, is that there is more an attitude of "if a belief isn't forbidden or declared to be heresy, then it is a valid and acceptable part of the Catholic tradition, as long as some Catholics believe it." There seems to be more of an attitude of a variety of extrapolated beliefs being included in Catholic tradition.

Orthodoxy, rightly or wrongly, does not believe so much in the development and extrapolation of doctrine as we do in the gradual articulation of beliefs that were held from the very beginning, without interuption, but perhaps in more inchoate form. Some would call this naive, but it is how we look at it.

So, no, it really isn't accurate to state that Orthodox Christians can choose to believe in purgatory just because it hasn't formally been declared to be off-limits. We consider that any level of going beyond what is agreed on within Orthodoxy is to stand on unstable ground, and is to be avoided.

"So, no, it really isn't accurate to state that Orthodox Christians can choose to believe in purgatory just because it hasn't formally been declared to be off-limits. We consider that any level of going beyond what is agreed on within Orthodoxy is to stand on unstable ground, and is to be avoided."

Agreed. Let me add, however, that true theologoumenna are not simply something we choose to believe which isn't a condemned heresy. Theologoumenna must be belief which are otherwise uncontradicted by the doctrines and dogma of The Church, for example, the bodily Assumption of Panagia into heaven after her death. Purgatory, however, as taught by the Latin Church, in some aspects contradicts Orthodox teaching in a number of areas and thus a belief in Purgatory by an Orthodox Christian, in my opinion, would be improper.

A Catholic would say a few things about this. First, the present state of cafeteria Catholicism in the West is aberrant. Even so, no serious Catholic would declare a hypothesis tradition merely because it is not pronounced heretical.

Second, we've got the Pope and through his office we are better equipped to develop doctrine. Now, some would of course say that this is precisely what is wrong with us, but then our entire belief in the degree of authority in the Chair of Peter needs to be addressed. This puts us in a position not enjoyed by the Orthodox: a particular doctrinal development needs to be looked at on its individual merits rather than just dismissed because it is a development. We need then to see if there is sufficient warrant in the Scripture and the Fathers to refine the doctrine of final purification. It does no suffice to merely say that because the doctrine was not sufficiently defined, say, by 5th century, then it is an invalid doctrine. And of course, we don't disagree that the Pope has no authority to go beyond the initial deposit of faith.

At this point I'll be following The Roots of Purgatory. If you prefer, stop right here and go to the entire article; I'll provide a brief summary.

Direct scriptural support is in Corinthians 3:11–15 and Matthew 5:25–26, 12:31–32, as well as 2 Macc. 12:41–45/

It is important to differentiate the actual Catholic doctrinal belief from the popular perceptions of purgatory as a place or that the stay therein has a particular duration. The dioctrine merely states "(1) that a purification after death exists, (2) that it involves some kind of pain, and (3) that the purification can be assisted by the prayers and offerings by the living to God".

Beyond that, we believe that it is clear that prayers for the dead were offered since the earliest time. some evidence is cited in the article. This really should be sufficient for our case; but there is also substantial patristic support, for example:

It is one thing to stand for pardon, another thing to attain to glory; it is one thing, when cast into prison, not to go out thence until one has paid the uttermost farthing; another thing at once to receive the wages of faith and courage. It is one thing, tortured by long suffering for sins, to be cleansed and long purged by fire; another to have purged all sins by suffering. It is one thing, in fine, to be in suspense till the sentence of God at the day of judgment; another to be at once crowned by the Lord".
Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 51[55]:20 [A.D. 253]
If a man distinguish in himself what is peculiarly human from that which is irrational, and if he be on the watch for a life of greater urbanity for himself, in this present life he will purify himself of any evil contracted, overcoming the irrational by reason. If he has inclined to the irrational pressure of the passions, using for the passions the cooperating hide of things irrational, he may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested in what is better, when, after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying fire
Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon on the Dead [A.D. 382]

Those seem to offer most specific description; there are much more at the source.