Category: Heaven and Hell
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Two Types of Humanity: The Mystic and the Profligate
Julian Green, Diary 1928-1957, entry of 30 December 1940, p. 104: Does our body never weary of desiring the same things? [. . .] There are only two types of humanity . . . the mystic and the profligate, because both fly to extremes , searching, each is his own way, for the absolute; but,…
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Who’s Hell Bound?
Just over the transom from Derwood: Help me understand something. When Jesus died, the vast percentage of humanity had and would never hear of the Jewish messiah/god. True. And that would seem to include all sorts of righteous Old Testament individuals, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Surely, the latter three are not in hell. As…
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Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and the Will to Believe
My friend, I continue to read and reread your Heaven and Hell essay, especially the "Concluding Existential-Practical Postscript". Psalm 23. "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not…." Let us pray that there is a Good Shepherd who cares deeply about his flock and will do things to relieve their suffering. Can we come…
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Heaven and Hell: the Looming of the Last Things at the End of the Trail
A friend of mine, nearing the end of the trail, afflicted in body and soul, writes: A question, my friend. Can you imagine someone on his deathbed saying, "Well I never really believed I'd meet Jesus, but the possible reward (eternal salvation) was so great that I was persuaded to be a believer so…
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How Christian is the Doctrine of Hell?
The traditional doctrine of hell appears to be a consequence of two assumptions, the first of which is arguably unbiblical. Geddes MacGregor: ". . . the doctrine of hell, with its attendant horrors, is intended as the logical development of the notion that, since man is intrinsically immortal, and some men turn out badly, they…
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Is Heaven Real?
A neurosurgeon's near-death experience. Top o' the Stack.
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A Theory of Hell
The 'pleasures' of hell explained over at Substack.
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Combat Veterans
They descended into hell and some rose again from the dead. Who am I to ask them any questions? Do I have the right? Craig was a housemate of mine in undergraduate days. When he was 18 he ran away from a troubled home and joined the Marine Corps. He ended up in Vietnam. One…
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What the Hell?
Just as Biden and his supporters are disasters for the USA, Bergoglio and his supporters are disasters for the RCC. 'Twould appear that all of the institutions of the West are in dire need of fumigation. See here: But Pope Francis appears to have scotched that possibility. “No one can exclude themselves from the Church,”…
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Would it be Heaven for a Mother Whose Child is in Hell?
Vito Caiati raises an interesting theological question. This week, I again read your post of 08/24/2019 On the Specificity of Traditional Catholic Claims, in which you question the certainty assumed by the Catholic doctrine of the [moral] immutability of the soul, and hence its fate, after death. My interest in your thoughts on this matter arises…
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An Atheological Argument from the Evil of Radical Skepticism
Bradley Schneider sends this argument of his devising: Premise 1: If God exists, God has the power to eliminate/overcome/defeat any evil in reality without creating more evil (i.e., God and evil can coexist but God should prevail over evil in the end). Premise 2: Radical skepticism about the world is an evil (NOT that radical…
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Why There Has to be Hell
Here is an amateur theological speculation. Suppose a rebellious nature such as Bertrand Russell or Jean-Paul Sartre or Christopher Hitchens finds himself in the divine presence and yet continues to refuse to acknowledge reality, which includes the rebel's creature status. Hitchens, or whoever, continues to assert himself madly with Luciferian pride and egomania against the…
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A Theory of Hell
The spiritually immature have spiritually immature conceptions of man and God, heaven and hell. If you think of man as just a physical being, then, if you think of God at all, you will most likely think of him as a physical being, as a sort of Man Writ Large, or Big Guy in the…
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Metaphysical Joy and Sadness
There is a rare form of joy that some of us have experienced, a joy that suggests that at the back of this life is something marvellous and that one day this life may open out onto it. It goes together with a kind of sadness, call it metaphysical nostalgia, a sort of longing for…
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The Intellectual Chutzpah of David Bentley Hart
Here (HT: Karl White): Let me, however, add one more observation that will seem insufferably pompous or a little insane: to wit, that the argument I make in my book—that Christianity can be a coherent system of belief if and only if it is understood as involving universal salvation—is irrefutable. Any Christian whom it fails…