section_path: Abrahamic religions/Christianity/Limbo
section_name: Limbo
paragraph_text: Limbo
  
  Despite popular opinion, Limbo, which was elaborated upon by theologians beginning in the Middle Ages, was never recognized as a dogma of the Catholic Church, yet, at times, it has been a very popular theological theory within the Church. Limbo is a theory that unbaptized but innocent souls, such as those of infants or virtuous individuals who lived before Jesus Christ was born, exist in neither Heaven nor Hell proper. Therefore, these souls neither merit the beatific vision, nor are subjected to any punishment, because they are not guilty of any personal sin although they have not received baptism, so still bear original sin. So they are generally seen as existing in a state of natural, but not supernatural, happiness, until the end of time.
  
  In other Christian denominations it has been described as an intermediate place or state of confinement in oblivion and neglect.