{"id":42,"date":"2025-08-12T11:51:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/whos-hell-bound\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T11:51:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:51:47","slug":"whos-hell-bound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/whos-hell-bound\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s Hell Bound?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just over the transom from Derwood:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Help me understand something. When Jesus died, the vast percentage of humanity had and would never hear of the Jewish messiah\/god.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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 I understand traditional RCC theology, Abraham & Co. upon their deaths were sent to the "limbo of the fathers" (limbus patrum<\/em>), a 'place' distinct from both hell and purgatory wherein the Old Testament righteous enjoyed a natural happiness, but did not partake of the Beatific Vision (visio beata<\/em>).  This, I take it, is the 'place' Christ visited after his crucifixion when he "descended into hell' (as we read in the NT) before rising on the third day.  He went there to release the OT saints from their 'holding pen' and bring them to the Father in heaven.  It follows that the hell into which Christ descended is not hell as a 'place' of everlasting\/eternal damnation and torment. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Does that mean that the vast majority of humanity, men, women and children, were hell-bound heathens?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The problem of unbaptized children motivated a nuancing of the limbo concept by Albertus Magnus: there is not only the limbus patrum<\/em> but also the limbus infantium\/limbus puerorum<\/em>, the limbo of children.  Surely a just and benevolent deity would not send them to hell, sensu stricto<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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How does a just and benevolent deity allow that? <\/span>That persists today, doesn't it? How much of the world knows about, much less worships, Jesus? All hell-bound?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The topic of limbo is not currently discussed.  If I'm not mistaken, the 1992 RCC catechism makes no reference to it. Theology ain't what it used to be  What a degeneration from Ratzinger to Bergoglio! The German has a first-rate theological head. I recommend his books.  It should noted, however, that Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) considered limbo a doctrine it was not necessary for a Catholic to believe. See our friend Michael Liccione's First Things<\/em> article on the topic, A Doctrine in Limbo<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
I am just scratching the surface, and in any case I am not a theologian.  This fact does not dissuade me from 'pontificating' on this and plenty of other theological matters! Here are three good sources for anyone interested in this topic: an article<\/a> from The Thomist<\/em>; a Britannica<\/a> article; and one<\/a> from the Catholic Encyclopedia<\/em>. <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
At some point I want to discuss purgatory.  Calvin rejects the notion. Surely that is a theological error of major proportions! (I'm baiting my Calvinist friends.)<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Who’s Hell Bound?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,38,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-corner","category-heaven-and-hell","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}