Encyclopedia Of Hell Pdf Free 14

It is hardly surprising, then, that a belief in an afterlife should bean important part of the Christian tradition. Even if our lives doextend beyond the grave, however, the question remains concerning thenature of the future in store for us on the other side, and thevarious Christian views about heaven and hell are proposed answers tothis question. According to a relatively common view in the widerChristian culture, heaven and hell are essentially deservedcompensations for the kind of earthly lives we live. Good people go toheaven as a deserved reward for a virtuous life, and bad people go tohell as a just punishment for an immoral life; in that way, the scalesof justice are sometimes thought to balance. But virtually allChristian theologians regard such a view, however common it may be inthe popular culture, as overly simplistic and unsophisticated; thebiblical perspective, as they see it, is far more subtly nuanced thanthat.

is fairly unspecific concerning the fate of the wicked and the importof separation from God. For if we think of such separation as a stateof being estranged or alienated from God, or if we think of it assimply the absence of a loving union with God, then (3) is equallyconsistent with many different conceptions of hell, some arguablymilder than others. It is equally consistent, for example, with theidea that hell is a realm where the wicked receive retribution in theform of everlasting torment, with the idea that they will simply beannihilated in the end, with the idea that they create their own hellby rejecting God, and with the idea that God will simply make them ascomfortable as possible in hell even as God graciously limits the harmthey can do to each other (see Stump 1986). This lack of specificityis by design. For however one understands the fate of those whosupposedly remain separated from God forever, such a fatewill entail something like (3). Alternatively, anyone who rejects (3)will likewise reject the idea of everlasting torment as well as any ofthe supposedly milder conceptions of an everlasting separation fromGod.

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Although this Augustinian rationale for the justice of hell has had aprofound influence on the Western theological tradition, particularlyin the past, critics of Augustinian theology, both ancient andcontemporary, have raised a number of powerful objections to it.

But why suppose it even possible that a free creature should freelyreject forever the redemptive will of a perfectly loving andinfinitely resourceful God? In the relevant literature over the pastseveral decades, advocates of a free-will theodicy of hell haveoffered at least three quite different answers to this question:

In any case, how one assesses each of the three answers above willdepend upon how one understands the idea of moral freedom and the roleit plays, if any, in someone landing in either heaven or hell. Thefirst two answers also represent a fundamental disagreement concerningthe existence of free will in hell and perhaps even the nature of freewill itself. According to the first answer, the inhabitants of hellare those who have freely acquired a consistently evil will and anirreversibly bad moral character. So for the rest of eternity, theseinhabitants of hell do not even continue rejecting God freelyin any sense that requires the psychological possibility of choosingotherwise. But is such an irreversibly bad moral character evencoherent or metaphysically possible? Not according to the secondanswer, which implies that a morally perfect God would never ceaseproviding those in hell with opportunities for repentance andproviding these opportunities in contexts where such repentanceremains a genuine psychological possibility. All of which points onceagain to the need for a clearer understanding of the nature andpurpose of moral freedom. (See section 5.1 below for some additionalissues that arise in connection with freedom in heaven and hell.)

Rarely, if ever, are Christian theologians very specific about whatheaven will supposedly be like, and there are no doubt good reasonsfor this. For most of them would deny that the primary sources of theChristian faith, such as the Bible, provide much information on thisparticular matter. But three issues have typically arisen in therelevant philosophical literature: first, because so many of therecent Christian philosophers have focused upon free will theodiciesof hell, it is hardly surprising that the issue of freedom in heavenshould likewise have arisen; a second issue is whether the misery ofloved ones in hell would undermine the blessedness of those in heaven;and a third issue is whether immortality of any kind would ultimatelylead to tedium, boredom, and an insipid life.

The term hell is cognate to "hole" (cavern) and "hollow". It is a substantive formed from the Anglo-Saxon helan or behelian, "to hide". This verb has the same primitive as the Latin occulere and celare and the Greek kalyptein. Thus by derivation hell denotes a dark and hidden place. In ancient Norse mythology Hel is the ill-favoured goddess of the underworld. Only those who fall in battle can enter Valhalla; the rest go down to Hel in the underworld, not all, however, to the place of punishment of criminals.

The Latin infernus (inferum, inferi), the Greek Hades, and the Hebrew sheol correspond to the word hell. Infernus is derived from the root in; hence it designates hell as a place within and below the earth. Haides, formed from the root fid, to see, and a privative, denotes an invisible, hidden, and dark place; thus it is similar to the term hell. The derivation of sheol is doubtful. It is generally supposed to come from the Hebrew root meaning, "to be sunk in, to be hollow"; accordingly it denotes a cave or a place under the earth. In the Old Testament (Septuagint hades; Vulgate infernus) sheol is used quite in general to designate the kingdom of the dead, of the good (Genesis 37:35) as well as of the bad (Numbers 16:30); it means hell in the strict sense of the term, as well as the limbo of the Fathers. But, as the limbo of the Fathers ended at the time of Christ's Ascension, hades (Vulgate infernus) in the New Testament always designates the hell of the damned. Since Christ's Ascension the just no longer go down to the lower world, but they dwell in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1). However, in the New Testament the term Gehenna is used more frequently in preference to hades, as a name for the place of punishment of the damned. Gehenna is the Hebrew g-hinnom (Nehemiah 11:30), or the longer form g-ben-hinnom (Joshua 15:8), and g-ben-hinnom (2 Kings 23:10) "valley of the sons of Hinnom". Hinnom seems to be the name of a person not otherwise known. The Valley of Hinnom is south of Jerusalem and is now called Wadi er-rababi. It was notorious as the scene, in earlier days, of the horrible worship of Moloch. For this reason it was defiled by Josias (2 Kings 23:10), cursed by Jeremias (Jeremiah 7:31-33), and held in abomination by the Jews, who, accordingly, used the name of this valley to designate the abode of the damned (Targ. Jon., Gen., iii, 24; Henoch, c. xxvi). And Christ adopted this usage of the term. Besides Hades and Gehenna, we find in the New Testament many other names for the abode of the damned. It is called "lower hell" (Vulgate tartarus) (2 Peter 2:4), "abyss" (Luke 8:31 and elsewhere), "place of torments" (Luke 16:28), "pool of fire" (Revelation 19:20 and elsewhere), "furnace of fire" (Matthew 13:42, 50), "unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12, and elsewhere), "everlasting fire" (Matthew 18:8; 25:41; Jude 7), "exterior darkness" (Matthew 7:12; 22:13; 25:30), "mist" or "storm of darkness" (2 Peter 2:17; Jude 13). The state of the damned is called "destruction" (apoleia, Philippians 3:19 and elsewhere), "perdition" (olethros, 1 Timothy 6:9), "eternal destruction" (olethros aionios, 2 Thessalonians 1:9), "corruption" (phthora, Galatians 6:8), "death" (Romans 6:21), "second death" (Revelation 2:11 and elsewhere).

Where is hell? Some were of opinion that hell is everywhere, that the damned are at liberty to roam about in the entire universe, but that they carry their punishment with them. The adherents of this doctrine were called Ubiquists, or Ubiquitarians; among them were, e.g., Johann Brenz, a Swabian, a Protestant theologian of the sixteenth century. However, that opinion is universally and deservedly rejected; for it is more in keeping with their state of punishment that the damned be limited in their movements and confined to a definite place. Moreover, if hell is a real fire, it cannot be everywhere, especially after the consummation of the world, when heaven and earth shall have been made anew. As to its locality all kinds of conjectures have been made; it has been suggested that hell is situated on some far island of the sea, or at the two poles of the earth; Swinden, an Englishman of the eighteenth century, fancied it was in the sun; some assigned it to the moon, others to Mars; others placed it beyond the confines of the universe [Wiest, "Instit. theol.", VI (1789), 869]. The Bible seems to indicate that hell is within the earth, for it describes hell as an abyss to which the wicked descend. We even read of the earth opening and of the wicked sinking down into hell (Numbers 16:31 sqq.; Psalm 54:16; Isaiah 5:14; Ezekiel 26:20; Philippians 2:10, etc.). Is this merely a metaphor to illustrate the state of separation from God? Although God is omnipresent, He is said to dwell in heaven, because the light and grandeur of the stars and the firmament are the brightest manifestations of His infinite splendour. But the damned are utterly estranged from God; hence their abode is said to be as remote as possible from his dwelling, far from heaven above and its light, and consequently hidden away in the dark abysses of the earth. However, no cogent reason has been advanced for accepting a metaphorical interpretation in preference to the most natural meaning of the words of Scripture. Hence theologians generally accept the opinion that hell is really within the earth. The Church has decided nothing on this subject; hence we may say hell is a definite place; but where it is, we do not know. St. Chrysostom reminds us: "We must not ask where hell is, but how we are to escape it" (In Rom., hom. xxxi, n. 5, in P.G., LX, 674). St. Augustine says: "It is my opinion that the nature of hell-fire and the location of hell are known to no man unless the Holy Ghost made it known to him by a special revelation", (City of God XX.16). Elsewhere he expresses the opinion that hell is under the earth (Retract., II, xxiv, n. 2 in P.L., XXXII, 640). St. Gregory the Great wrote: "I do not dare to decide this question. Some thought hell is somewhere on earth; others believe it is under the earth" (Dial., IV, xlii, in P.L., LXXVII, 400; cf. Patuzzi, "De sede inferni", 1763; Gretser, "De subterraneis animarum receptaculis", 1595). be457b7860