The history of

HA briefE surveyL and resourceL guide

From the publishers of CHRISTIAN HISTORY THREE VIEWS OF TRADITIONAL Some people (perhaps even a majority of the human race) will not be saved. • Each person is judged once and for all at death and given either eternal life or eternal condemnation. • Hell is a place of endless, conscious punishment for . This punishment is sometimes interpreted literally (physical torment) and sometimes metaphorically (a state of being, spiritual suffering, separation from ). • Once a person is in hell, there is no exit. • Some versions of this view argue that there are variations in punishment depending upon the severity of a person’s . • Some (Calvinist) versions emphasize God’s sovereignty in punishing those whom he chooses to punish, while other versions emphasize the freedom of human choice. • The Roman Catholic view distinguishes between hell and purgatory, a place of temporary purification for those who are destined for .

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY OR ANNIHILATIONISM Some people will not be saved. • The human is not naturally immortal. Eternal existence is a gift of God to the redeemed. • The unrepentant will be ­punished, but this period of conscious punishment will be temporary. • At the final ­resurrection, the unrepentant will be destroyed and cease to exist. The biblical “fire” of hell is a consuming, rather than tormenting, fire. • Some conditionalists believe that after death a person will receive a second chance to accept or reject God.

RESTORATIONISM OR UNIVERSALISM All people will eventually be saved, and God will restore the creation to perfect harmony. • Eternal punishment contradicts the love of God, since God wills the salvation of all and has the power to overcome sin and evil. God’s love is stronger than human resistance. • If there is a hell, it is not eternal. Punishment is temporary and remedial, leading the sinner towards repentance and union with God. • Even the devil can ultimately repent and be saved. • Some theologians throughout history have maintained a more cautious “hopeful universalist” stance: We cannot say dogmatically that all will be saved, but neither can we deny the possibility.

Founder Project Editor Writers Dr. A. K. Curtis Jennifer Trafton Dr. Edwin Woodruff Tait (early church) Dr. Chris R. Armstrong (Middle Ages) Managing Editor Layout & Design Dr. Jennifer Woodruff Tait (early modern period) Dr. Chris R. Armstrong Tara M. Smith Jennifer Trafton (19th century, modern debates) Executive Editor Production Coordinator Publisher Bill Curtis Deb Landis Christian History Institute Editorial Coordinator Proofreader © Christian History Institute Dawn Moore Dr. Jennifer Woodruff Tait

© 2011 Christian History. Cover: Gustave Doré, illustration for Paradise Lost by John Milton (Dover). ­Christian ­History is published by Christian History Institute, P.O. Box 540, Worcester, PA, 19490. Subscriptions are ­available on a donation basis by calling 1-800-468-0458, or through www.christianhistorymagazine.org. ­Letters to the editor may be sent to Chris Armstrong, editor, Christian History ­magazine, P.O. Box 540, Worcester,­ PA 19490. Permissions: Requests to reprint material should be directed­ to Dawn Moore, editorial coordinator, Christian History Institute, P.O. Box 540, Worcester, PA, 19490. Find us online at ChristianHistoryMagazine.org Letter from the editors Welcome! Christian History Institute, publisher of Christian History magazine, is pleased to provide this brief survey and resource guide on the history of Christian thought about hell. The doctrine of hell has sparked considerable debate, especially since the 19th century and most recently with Michigan pastor Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. We you’ll find that we’ve done our job as historians, so that this resource provides light in a debate where there’s a lot of heat. This guide is also our first answer to the many readers of the magazine who have told us you would like to see us do more in the history of . Please continue to let us know how we’re doing—we exist to serve you. And if you find this publication helpful and would like to order multiple copies for church or classroom use, see the letter and order form bound into center of this booklet. Many thanks to Jennifer Trafton, who served as project editor for this guide. We congratulate and rejoice with Jennifer on her forthcoming wedding this summer. Meanwhile, our team is hard at work on issue #101 of Christian History, to be released this fall. The issue’s theme is healthcare in the early and medieval church, and its top story is about how Christians pioneered an important social service institution: the hospital. Another topic we are strongly considering for an upcoming issue is the African Church Fathers (Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Origen, and others). If you want to be sure to receive future CHI publications, you can check to see whether you have an account number on the back cover of this guide. If not, you can subscribe by logging on to www.christianhistorymagazine.org and clicking “subscribe” or by calling 1-800-468-0458. Christian History is now a donation-based publication. You will not receive an invoice from us for your subscription. We only ask that you consider making an annual donation to help support this ministry. And tell your friends! Yours in the renewing knowledge of our spiritual heritage, The team at Christian History CHRISTIAN HISTORY INSTITUTE’S HEADQUARTERS IN EASTERN PA. DRAWING BY ROBIN HELLER

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What have Christians throughout history believed about hell? Here (c. 103–165) are some key people and their views. Early Christian Texts The Didache, or “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,” is an anonymous text dating from the late first or early second century, making it one of the earliest non- canonical Christian texts. A central theme of the text is moral instruction, organized around the “two ways”: the “way of life” and the “way of death.” Each “way” con- sists of a list of actions that characterize those who follow it. The same theme is found in the Epistle of Barnabas, another early non-canonical text. These early Christian writings af- firm a close link between moral behavior Justin Martyr was a convert to Chris- and one’s eternal destiny but show little tianity from pagan philosophy, and his interest in the details of the eternal pun- most distinctive theological contribution ishment about which they warn. was the idea that the eternal Logos, the Other texts, such as the Apocalypse Word of God, was active in “seed” form of Peter, go farther, providing lurid in all people. This allowed Justin to argue descriptions of the punishments that that whatever is said well by pagans can correspond to particular sins. Adulter- properly be appropriated by Christians:­ ers, for instance, would be punished “Whatever things were rightly said in this way: “And there were also oth- among all men, are the property of us ers, women, hanged by their hair above Christians . . . For all the writers were that mire which boiled up; and these able to see realities darkly through the were they that adorned themselves for sowing of the implanted word that was adultery. And the men that were joined in them. For the seed and imitation im- with them in the defilement of adultery parted according­ to capacity is one thing, were hanging by their feet, and had their and quite another is the thing itself, of heads hidden in the mire, and said: ‘We which there is the participation and imi- believed not that we should come unto tation according to the grace which is this place.’” This theme would show up from Him.” frequently in medieval visions of hell (in- While Justin was reticent about the cluding Dante’s) and also finds striking implications of this idea for the eternal echoes in the Qur’an. fate of pagans, his ideas about the Logos JUSTIN MARTYR: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN JUSTIN MARTYR: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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inspired later Christian speculation about , bishop of Lyons, is best “virtuous pagans” who might somehow known for his refutation of the Gnostics. have access to the truth of Christ apart The Gnostics used the prooftext “flesh from the usual channels—making Jus- and blood will not enter the kingdom tin the father of the inclusivist tradition of God” (1 Cor. 15:50) to argue against a within Christianity. bodily resurrection. Irenaeus argued, in contrast, that took on human na- ture in order to redeem every aspect of Clement of humanity, including our physical bodies. Irenaeus described the fall as the decep- Alexandria tion of an innocent, childlike Adam and (c. 150–c. 215) Eve by . While Irenaeus believed in eternal punishment, he stressed Jesus’ re- Clement of Alexandria was arguably demption of humanity as a whole, with the first Christian writer to speak of the as the fate only of those who apokatastasis, the return of all created chose to reject this redemption. ­beings to God. He also suggested that the fire of judgment is a fire of purification rather than destruction. However, he did Tertullian not develop his ideas systematically. (c. 160–c. 220 AD) Irenaeus (late second century)

Tertullian, the fiery Christian apolo- gist from North Africa, eloquently rep- resented the most rigorous aspects of early Christian thought. He believed that serious post-baptismal sin could not be IRENAEUS: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN TERTULLIAN: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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­forgiven and argued against infant bap- created by God in order to give fallen tism on that basis. In his writing against minds the necessary­ stimulus to return paganism, he noted that the eternal flame from their state of apathy. Hell was sim- tended by the vestal virgins (aristocratic ply an ­extreme form of that purgatorial priestesses in traditional Roman ) discipline, and the Scriptural texts speak- was an apt symbol of the fate that await- ing of eternal punishment were benevo- ed them after death. lent deceptions­ by God meant to shock us into repentance. While Satan and the demons are at a disadvantage because Origen they lack bodies,­ ­Origen expressed hope (c. 185–254) that they too would return to God in the apokatastasis­ , the final restoration of all creation. The apokatastasis was con- demned as heretical at the Second Coun- cil of Constantinople in 553, three centu- ries after Origen’s death. Athanasius (c. 296–373) Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria and staunch defender of the full divin- ity of Jesus, described salvation primar- ily in terms of restoration to union with the divine life. Since we are created from nothing, Athanasius believed, we tend to fall back into nothingness when sepa- rated from the divine life through sin. This is both the natural result of sin and a just punishment imposed by God. All aspects of human weakness and “corrup- Origen was perhaps the most con- tion” are thus the result of our separation troversial early Christian writer on es- from the divine life. Like Irenaeus, Atha- chatology (and other doctrines as well). nasius believed that Jesus had redeemed Deeply shaped by the traditions of humanity as a whole by taking on the Middle Platonist philosophy current in just punishment of our sins in his death second-century Alexandria, and by the (thus defeating death and ending its legal work of Clement, Origen understood the claim on us) and by restoring the link be- drama of salvation history as the divine tween human nature and the life of God. initiative to restore created “minds” to Athanasius’s understanding of “corrup- the ecstatic intellectual union with God tion” seems to imply that the wicked in which they were originally made. would eventually be annihilated, but he The entire physical world, in Origen’s does not seem to have drawn this conclu- theology, was a purgatorial discipline sion. He may instead have believed that ORIGEN: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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damnation was an endless slide toward nothingness that never quite got there—a view later suggested by C. S. Lewis. Gregory Nazianzen (c. 325–389) Gregory Nazianzen, one of the “Cap- padocian” theologians who helped formulate the doctrine of the Trinity, discussed Origen’s concept of the apo- katastasis and refused to take a decisive stance for or against it, preferring to leave the question to God. Gregory of GREGORY OF NYSSA of Satan is not only for our good but for Nyssa his, since Satan too will ultimately be re- (c. 335–394) stored to union with God. Gregory of Nyssa, another Cappado- cian, drew heavily on the work of Origen, John including his doctrine of the apokatastasis. Gregory was fond of the image of the re- Chrysostom fining fire, which burns out the dross from (c. 347–407) the ore. While he sometimes spoke of eter- nal punishment, he seems to have under- John Chrysostom was accused of stood this merely as a long-lasting purga- “Origenism” as part of a politically-mo- torial punishment that would eventually tivated heresy investigation, but he does result in salvation. The corruption of hu- not seem to have held Origen’s views on man bodies, Gregory argues, is purged by the apokatastasis. He frequently warned physical death, while the corruption of the of eternal punishment in his . In soul is purged by punishments after death. his homilies against Judaizers, he con- Gregory was one of the greatest expo- trasted what he saw as the “prosperity nents of the “ransom theory,” whereby gospel” proclaimed by the Jews with the Jesus offers himself to Satan as a ransom more austere (and thus more authentic) for the of sinful humanity. When Christian teaching: “In our churches we Satan clamps down on the “bait,” he is hear countless discourses on eternal pun- caught by the fishhook of Christ’s divin- ishments, on rivers of fire, on the venom- ity and humanity is delivered. Gregory ous worm, on bonds that cannot be burst, goes on to say, however, that this defeat on outer darkness.” GREGORY OF NYSSA: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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(Augustine also believed in some form of Jerome purgation, but he saw this as something (c. 347–420) fundamentally different from hell.) More significant, perhaps, was his doctrine of Jerome was influenced by Origen in his and the resulting view that earlier writings and allegedly defended fallen human beings constitute a massa the view that all the baptized would even- damnata, condemned as a whole for the tually be saved, with only the demons and sin of Adam and Eve which has been non-Christians being eternally damned. transmitted to them as a corruption of This view was rejected by Augustine, and the will. God graciously chooses some Jerome himself turned harshly against human beings from this condemned Origen’s ideas in his later years. “mass,” who then share in the salvation procured by Christ when he ransomed Augustine of humanity from the devil. Hippo Maximus the (354–430) Confessor (c. 580–662) Maximus is best known for his de- fense of the doctrine that Jesus has a hu- man will distinct from his divine will, and that the humanity of Jesus has sav- ing importance for the redemption of human beings. Maximus’s theology was deeply shaped by that of the Cappado- cian Fathers including Gregory of Nyssa, and thus by Origen. Maximus used the language of apokatastasis, but he also warned that human beings can reject God’s grace and experience “ill-being” rather than “well-being.” He appears to have believed that all creation will be restored­ to the primal knowledge of God, but for those who have chosen to ­reject God this knowledge will be a source of sorrow rather than joy. How­ Augustine, unquestionably the most ever, the cosmic implications of his influential theologian of the Western Christology are such that, in the end, all church, defended the doctrine of eter- will return to God. The process of return nal punishment against the followers of will involve purification, and “ill-being” Origen and others who held to a more and sorrow will eventually arrive at “purgatorial” understanding of hell. “well-being” and joy. BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI (WIKIMEDIA / THE YORCK PROJECT)

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elation in particular began to guide The Middle Christian imagination on people’s fate after death. This emphasis on the af- Ages terlife resulted in a lavishly visual and (roughly 500–1500 AD) grotesque new genre of literature: the vision of the otherworldly­ journey, of which Dante’s Divine Comedy repre- sented the pinnacle. In these journeys, more words were usually lavished on the descriptions of hell than on purga- tory or heaven—and the imagery in- cluded eternally burning fire, snakes, boiling kettles, fields of eternal ice, rivers of swirling sulfur, and demon- administered tortures. Often these visionary journeys pur- ported to show readers hell from the vantage point of a person who had died (briefly), visited the realms of the dead, and returned to tell the tale. The goal of such stories was almost always to exhort the reader or hearer to live morally on earth, avoiding the sins that condemn the damned forever.

The medieval period saw a shift in em- Anselm of phasis from the early church’s focus on the biblical “Last Things”—the Second Canterbury Coming of Christ, general resurrection, (1033–1108) and final judgment—to a new concentra- tion on the of individuals. Until the 400s and even beyond, Jesus’ return was still expected imminently; thus those who died in the intervening generations could be thought of as simply sleeping or awaiting the resurrection. There was not much written during this early period about the immediate fate of those who died before Jesus returned. As the Second Coming came to seem more remote, however, Chris- tians increasingly focused on the doc- trine of the immediate judgment of each soul at death. The Book of Rev- THE BY FRA ANGELICO (WIKIMEDIA / THE YORCK PROJECT) THE LAST JUDGMENT BY FRA ANGELICO (WIKIMEDIA / YORCK PROJECT) ANSELM: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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In the development of Christian doc- Europe, were dualists. They believed that trine about hell, the early scholastic theolo- earthly existence, including the human gian Anselm of Canterbury is best known body, is evil, created not by the Christian for arguing for the eternal timespan of pun- God but by an evil god. The God whom ishment in hell by an analogy from feudal they worshipped was a being of pure law. In feudalism, the severity of the pun- who would never have stooped so ishment for an offense was determined not low as to take on evil flesh. Thus they de- so much by the nature of the offense as by nied that Jesus could become incarnate the relative worthiness of the one offended and still be the son of God. They denied, against. Stealing from a king resulted in a too, the Christian understanding of the steeper punishment than stealing from a crucifixion and the cross as saving things. serf, for example. On this basis, Anselm The saw the Cathars as concluded that a crime against God’s in- dangerous heretics and persecuted them finite honor deserves an infinite punish- ruthlessly, even launching a crusade ment. However, since humans are finite, against them (the “Albigensian crusade”). we can pay the penalty for our sins only by Not surprisingly, the Cathars also re- suffering for an infinite time. jected the traditional Christian doctrine This was Anselm the scholastic, clari- of hell. For the Cathars, this world was fying a doctrine that Christians already the only hell (and it was hell enough, giv- believed by applying reason to it (his en the persecution they suffered). There motto was “ seeking understand- was nothing to fear after death, except ing”). But at the end of his “Meditation maybe a sort of that some to Arouse Fear,” he showed his pastoral of their sect taught. Their objective was to side (he was both an archbishop and a escape from the cycle of reincarnation, to former abbot). There, after describing earn the right to go to heaven and avoid the torments of hell, he addressed the another term of imprisonment here in question, “Who could possibly deliver hell on earth. any person from this fate?” His answer: “It is he himself, he himself is Jesus. The same is my Judge between whose hands Thomas I tremble. Take heart, sinner, and do not despair. Hope in him whom you fear, Aquinas flee to him from whom you have fled. (1224–1274) . . . Jesus, Jesus, for your name’s sake deal with me according to your name. . . . The great scholastic theologian Thom- Have mercy, Jesus, while the time of as Aquinas is known for several teach- ­mercy lasts, lest in the time of judgment ings related to hell. First, he argued that you condemn.” eternal conscious punishment was fitting for a person who rejected God in favor of temporal goods here on earth, because The Cathars such a person actually showed that he (11th–12th centuries) preferred temporal goods over even eter- nal life with God. God is just, he rea- The Cathars, a Christian sect that soned, to punish that person in the same sprung up in France and other parts of way as if he had sinned eternally—with

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dant thanks,” they would be granted a ringside seat to the punishment of the damned. As with other traditional doc- trines, this one was grounded in Scrip- ture: Rev. 14:9-11 shows the wicked be- ing tormented with in the presence of the angels and of the Lamb (Rev. 14:9-11); in the story of Dives and Lazarus in Luke 16, Dives can see Lazarus across “the great gulf fixed,” and so it seems reasonable that Lazarus could also see Dives; and Isaiah 66:22-24 prom- ises that the worshippers of the Lord will “go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Him: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.” Aquinas also contributed the notion of a “limbo” where unbaptized infants would avoid the worst penalties of hell. eternal punishment—such that, in the Limbo was still a part of hell, because biblical phrase, he would “gain the world infants were still stained by original sin, but lose his soul.” but they were allowed to suffer only the Thomas also addressed the charge, absence of God and not the physical tor- which is also heard from some modern ment vividly pictured in so many medi- critics, that God has somehow been lim- eval writings and artworks. ited in his omnipotence if any must go to hell (thus thwarting his divine plan in cre- ating humanity to share divine blessedness with him). He acknowledged that God’s (1265–1321) goodness demands that all be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). But he also argued that the manifesta- No medieval treatment of hell springs tion of God’s (or his hatred of sin) to mind more readily today than Dante’s requires that at least some people should Inferno—the first of the three books of his sin so that they may be justly punished. Divine Comedy. According to the poem, Thus God’s will to save all is modified by one day in 1300 Dante found himself wan- the demands of his justice and produces a dering in a gloomy forest. After encoun- compromise: He will save the elect, thus tering three ravenous beasts, he was met manifesting his mercy, and damn the rep- by the Latin poet Virgil, who promised to robate, thus manifesting his justice. conduct him through hell and purgatory. Particularly jarring to modern sen- On the evening of Good Friday, April 8, sibilities is Aquinas’s defense of the tra- they entered the gate of hell (over which ditional doctrine that in order for the are the famous words: “Abandon hope, in heaven to “enjoy their beatitude all ye who enter here”), and they began more thoroughly and give more abun- to travel through its ­successive ­circles. In : DEMIDOFF ALTARPIECE BY CARLO CRIVELLI (WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN) THOMAS AQUINAS: DEMIDOFF ALTARPIECE BY CARLO CRIVELLI (WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN)

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where they are. Their loves have become so disordered that they have arrived in hell of their own will. Dante agreed with Aristotle’s ancient opinion that the soul “forms” the body: people’s facial expressions, gestures, and body language bear witness to what is in their hearts. So, habitual sin changes the way we look (as our parents always told us: “Don’t make that face or it will stick that way”). Thus Dante had the sin- ners in his Inferno reenact forever in their bodies the very sins they had habitually practiced on earth. Those familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (a lover of Dante) will remember Eustace turning into a dragon in Narnia because he had had greedy, dragonish thoughts. This was exactly Dante’s point. Of course, as in Anselm’s “Meditation Dante’s imaginative vision, hell is an in- to Arouse Fear” and the medieval liter- verted cone with its apex at the center of ary tradition of journeys into hell, Dante the earth. The upper circle is that of the showed his readers hell so they would Elysian Fields where the noble pagans turn to the God of loving kindness who dwell. At each deeper level the travelers does not desire that any should perish. see punishments for more and more hei- nous sins, until they reach a frozen lake in which Lucifer himself punishes the most Desiderius awful sinners of all: the traitors. In keeping with the didactic purpose of Erasmus such medieval tales, Dante’s otherworldly (c. 1466–1536) journey turns him, step by step, from his darkness and sin and back to the joyous, Erasmus was a pioneer of biblical, shining presence of God. At the end of the patristic, and classical scholarship at the poem’s third book, Dante glimpses the turn of the 16th century. He referred to blessed saints enjoying God in heaven. the core of the Christian faith as the phi- The Inferno is intentionally repellent losophia Christiana (Christian philoso- in its depiction of the Christian hell. Even phy) and believed that this Christian phi- the sympathetic Christian reader Geof- losophy had much in common with the frey Nuttall said, “If the Inferno were the ethical teachings of the great pagan phi- whole poem, one could hardly avoid the losophers. In his colloquy “The Religious conclusion that Dante had a diseased Banquet,” the character Eusebius praises mind, obsessed with sadistic and other the deathbed sayings of ancient pagans sexual perversions.” But the denizens as signs that they had lived virtuously of Dante’s hell on some level want to be and were prepared for death, in contrast DANTE: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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thens. He based his inclusivist position on the doctrine of . Faith was the inevitable response of the elect to the proclamation of the gospel, but infants and those who had never heard the gospel could be saved without faith, simply because they were chosen by God. If they grew up, they would live virtuously, and if they heard the gospel, they would believe it, but sal- vation depended on nothing but God’s sovereign choice. Martin Luther (1483–1546)

to many Christians who relied on super- stitious ceremonies. “I sometimes find some things said or written by the ancients,” says Eusebius, “nay, even by the heathens . . . so divine- ly, that I cannot persuade myself but that when they wrote them they were divinely inspired, and that the spirit of Christ dif- fuses itself further than we imagine: and that there are more saints than we have in our catalogue.” Citing specifically the hu- mility of Socrates’s speech shortly before his death, recorded in ’s dialogue Crito, Eusebius remarks: “I can scarce for- bear when I read such things of such men, but cry out: ‘Holy Socrates, pray for us!’”

Luther understood hell primarily in Huldrych terms of alienation from God resulting from the futile human effort to be jus­ Zwingli tified by our own works. In his early (1484–1531) writings, such as the lectures on Romans, Luther suggested that purgatory is in fact Zwingli followed Erasmus in his indistinguishable from hell, and that a hope for the salvation of virtuous hea- person who is truly in the grace of God ERASMUS: DESIDERIUS ERASMUS BY HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER (WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN) LUTHER: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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will accept this apparent­ damnation as that direction, but it is not clear that he the just punishment for their sins. At this actually affirmed that everyone would point purgatory will have done its work be saved. and the repentant sinner will experience the presence of God. The effort to escape damnation (understood as horrific tor­ ­ John Calvin ment after death) or even purgatory (1509–1564) (often understood in Luther’s time as an equally horrific but temporary state of torment) is spiritually harmful and will in fact result in damnation. Only by throwing themselves on the mercy of God and abandoning efforts at ­self- justification may human beings escape the . In the Romans­ lectures, ­Luther also seems to support the view of Erasmus that virtuous­ heathen might be saved. Later, Luther rejected purgatory out- right and insisted on the importance of actually hearing the Word proclaimed (in contrast to Erasmus, Zwingli, or Denck). However, he continued to stress dam- nation as alienation from God resulting from self-righteousness rather than as a state of hideous torment.

Calvin sided with the later Luther Hans Denck over Zwingli on the absolute necessity of (c. 1500–1527) hearing the Word of God for salvation. For Calvin, the doctrine of predestination Denck was seen in his short lifetime explained why it was just for only those as one of the major representatives of who heard the gospel to be saved. Anabaptist thought, even though he (Calvin’s affirmation of original sin as renounced the idea that baptism must defined by Augustine, which Zwingli be a sign of prior faith shortly before had questioned, gave him a basis for his death and reconciled himself with affirming the damnation even of those mainstream Protestantism. Denck un­ who appeared never to have had a chance derstood­ the “Word of God” as an for salvation.) However, like Luther, Cal­ internal word that speaks to the heart vin focused on the existential aspect of of every human being. This made it damnation as separation from God, rather possible for those who had not heard than on the physical torments of hell the gospel to be saved. Denck was described in much medieval preaching accused of universalism, and his and visionary literature. Hence, Calvin teaching on salvation seems to point in could describe Jesus as suffering the CALVIN: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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torments of hell in Gethsemane and on centering around a lake of fire—is a tradi- the cross when he was abandoned by God tional one but has particularly vivid stay- because of our sins. ing power: “No light, but rather darkness visible/ Served only to discover sights of woe,/ Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, John Milton where peace/ And rest can never dwell, (1608–1674) hope never comes/ That comes to all; but torture without end.” John Locke (1632–1704)

Milton’s influence on later views of hell comes largely through his poetic masterpiece Paradise Lost, which pic- tures a humanized Satan in contrast to the medieval traditions which portrayed the Devil as grotesque and monstrous. Satan famously described his predica- Locke is well known as a writer who ment as more psychological than physi- favored religious toleration and argued cal: “Which way I fly is Hell; myself am for Christianity as a reasonable religion Hell;/ And in the lowest deep a lower suitable for belief by Enlightenment intel- deep/ Still threat’ning to devour me lectuals. In at least some of his writings, opens wide,/ To which the Hell I suffer he endorsed annihilationism—the view seems a Heav’n.” Many writers of the that whereas the saved enjoy eternal life Romantic era, with their penchant for an- with Christ, the damned are simply an- guished, outcast heroes, found this por- nihilated, either immediately or after a trait a sympathetic one and considered defined period of punishment, rather Satan the real hero of the poem. than suffering torments for eternity. (Re- Milton’s physical description of hell— garding the “unquenchable fire” men- large, dark, hot, painful, endless, and tioned at several points in the , he MILTON: WIKIMEDIA / PROJECT GUTENBERG JOHN LOCKE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

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commented that this did not mean “that that the saved observe from heaven with the bodies which were burnt in it were rejoicing (“Thy hand shall on rebellious never consumed, only that the worms kings/ A fiery tempest pour,/ While we that gnawed and the fire that burnt were beneath thy shelt’ring wings/ Thy just constant and never ceased till they were revenge adore.”) His Divine and Moral destroyed.”) Songs for Children was one of the first Like John Milton, Locke is often known hymnals written specifically with claimed on Unitarian Universalist web- children in mind (it is the source of one sites, but like Milton, this rests more on of his most famous hymns on God’s sov- his unorthodox beliefs about the Trinity ereignty, “I sing the almighty power of and his advocacy of a tolerant Christian- God”), and many of its hymns remind ity (within limits—he refused to tolerate those children of their potential for dam- either Catholics or atheists) than it does nation. on any universalism in his writings. Like Edwards, Watts often used fear of hell as a motivating factor to encour- age his listeners to repent. One of the Isaac Watts most famous hymns from Divine and (1674–1748) Moral Songs reads: “There is beyond the sky/ A heaven of joy and love;/ And holy children, when they die,/ Go to that world above./ There is a dreadful hell,/ And everlasting pains:/ There sinners must with devils dwell/ In darkness, fire, and chains./ Can such a wretch as I/ Escape this cursed end?/ And may I hope, whene’er I die,/ I shall to heaven ascend?/ Then will I read and pray,/ While I have life and breath,/ Lest I should be cut off to–day,/ And sent t’ eternal death.” Other hymns threaten hell as the reward for cursing, blasphem- ing God, insulting others, being influ- enced by “sinful children,” lying, becom- ing hardened in sin, and conforming to “wicked fashions” rather than standing up for the truth.

Hymnwriter Watts held to the tradi- William Law tional view of hell as an eternal place of (1686–1761) torment for the sinner, and he portrayed it as such often in his poetry. Watts wrote Law is chiefly known for his Serious many hymns that focused on God as sov- Call to a Devout and Holy Life, a call to ereign and majestic, including in his righ- moral living and single-minded focus teous damnation of sinners, a damnation on God. It was influential on religious ISAAC WATTS: WIKIMEDIA / PROJECT GUTENBERG

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and cultural leaders of his day from John tence of hell, its torments, and its infinite Wesley to William Wilberforce to ­Samuel duration. He also believed that our eter- Johnson to Edward Gibbon (whose chil- nal destiny is fixed in this life; change and dren Law served for ten years as a tutor. growth might occur in heaven, but hell is Gibbon disliked religion, but he respect- a place of punishment, not purification or ed Law.) While he was always focused purgation. on “heart religion,” his later writings, His vivid visions, however, were under the influence of the mystic Jacob preached in a larger context which im- Boehme, became themselves more mys- pressed on his hearers the glories of tical and speculative as he sought to heaven, the majesty of God and God’s ­explain Boehme’s ideas to a lay audience. justice, and the necessity of escaping Law was a universalist who saw hell’s torments: “And now you have an God’s punishment and God’s love as extraordinary opportunity, a day where- two sides of the same coin, both direct- in Christ has thrown the door of mercy ed towards the ultimate end of eliminat- wide open, and stands in calling and cry- ing sin and death from the world: “And ing with a loud voice to poor sinners; a if long and long ages of fiery pain, and day wherein many are flocking to him, tormenting darkness, fall to the share of and pressing into the kingdom of God. many, or most, of God’s apostate crea- Many are daily coming from the east, tures, they will last no longer, than till west, north and south; many that were the great fire of God has melted all arro- very lately in the same miserable condi- gance into humility, and all that is SELF tion that you are in, are now in a happy has died in the long agonies and bloody state, with their hearts filled with love to sweat of a lost God, which is that all- him who has loved them, and washed saving cross of Christ, which will never them from their sins in his own blood, give up its redeeming power, till sin and and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. sinners have no more a name among the creatures of God.” Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Part of Edwards’ vision of hell is im- printed in the mind of every high school or college student who ever read his ser- mon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spi- der, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully pro- voked…”). Certainly Edwards held to traditional doctrines regarding the exis- JONATHAN EDWARDS: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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How awful is it to be left behind at such about the torments of hell, but far more of a day! To see so many others feasting, his hymns focus on the offer of free grace while you are pining and perishing! To and the powers God gives us to defeat see so many rejoicing and singing for joy evil (“Lo! to faith’s enlightened sight,/ of heart, while you have cause to mourn All the mountain flames with light;/ Hell for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexa- is nigh, but God is nigher,/ Circling us tion of spirit! How can you rest one mo- with hosts of fire.”) ment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the peo- ple at Suffield, where they are flocking Unitarianism from day to day to Christ?” Unitarianism, whose central tenets were a belief in the unity (not Trinity) of God and a denial of the divinity of Christ, John Wesley flourished in the late 18th and early 19th 1703–1791 centuries and influenced many Chris- tians in other denominations. Most Uni- tarians denied the natural immortality of Charles Wesley the soul and eternal punishment, instead 1707–1788 emphasizing future physical resurrec- tion and progress towards a restored paradise. Some suggested an interme- diate state after death when the wicked would be purified of evil. The statement by Unitarian minister Henry Giles in 1839 expressed the sentiment of numer- ous others in the latter half of the century: “There is no room in the same universe for a good God and an eternal hell.”

John Wesley’s sermons made it clear Thomas Erskine that he believed in hell as a place of eter- (1788–1870) nal punishment, with the chief focus be- ing on the loss of fellowship with friends Erskine was a well-known and well- and with God, and on the endless physi- loved Scottish thinker who believed that cal fire suffered by the damned. (Regard- the essence of sin is self-worship and ing any other torments he wrote, “Let us that hell is a state of being—a condition keep to the written word. It is torment of solipsistic misery. God’s abhorrence enough to dwell with everlasting burn- of sin, and therefore his purpose to de- ings.”) As a believer in unlimited atone- stroy it, is the only ground of a sinner’s ment, Wesley thought that salvation from hope. The only punishment we face is sin, death, and hell was available to all the repentance and self-denial that raises through the grace of God, though he did us above our sin into the bliss of loving not think all had chosen it. God: “Salvation does not consist in the Charles Wesley did write a few hymns removal of punishment, but in the will- JOHN WESLEY: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN CHARLES WESLEY: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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ing acceptance of it—in dying to self and a scandal. In the concluding essay, “On living unto God.” If anyone is in hell it is Eternal Life and Eternal Death,” he ar- because he put himself there by refusing gued that the word “eternal” in the New to enter heaven: “So long, therefore, as a Testament means being outside of time. man chooses to keep his sin, so long as he Eternal life and eternal punishment refer refuses to allow the forgiving love of God to a state of being, or more precisely, to to enter his heart . . . if he continues in this a quality of relationship to God, rather state through eternity, he must through than to an everlasting duration. The con- eternity be a child of wrath, abiding in dition of being alienated from God is its outer darkness.” However, Erskine else- own punishment. Eternal death is thus where asserted that since the creature has a present reality for all those caught in a no existence independent of its Creator, state of sin, from which Christ delivers “It is impossible that I should be sepa- them into an ongoing experience of new rated from him without ceasing to exist.” divine life. It is the sinful self at the center of existence which is the worst torture for the convicted soul, worse than any exter- Frederick nal legal penalty. Maurice could not believe that God Denison Maurice would condemn to everlasting death (1805–1872) those who did not know of the earthly Jesus, or that human resistance could ever be stronger than the universal love of God. He stopped just short of denying the possibility of a never-ending hell but hinted that the infinite love of God must be greater and deeper than human cor- ruption (he embraced a kind of “hopeful universalism”): “I am obliged to believe in an abyss of love which is deeper than the abyss of death: I dare not lose faith in that love. I sink into death, eternal death, if I do. I must feel that this love is encom- passing the universe. More about it I can- not know. But God knows. I leave myself and all to Him.” (1806–1873) Considered one of the most important The English philosopher found it theologians of 19th-century England, morally contradictory to believe in a Maurice was discharged from his teach- God who is loving and yet “who could ing post at King’s College, London, in make a Hell: and who could create 1853 after his Theological Essays created countless generations of human beings F.D. MAURICE: WIKIMEDIA / ACABASHI

Christian History 19 300 400 500 200 600 1000 700 800 900 30 AD 100 J. W. Colenso (1814–1883) The missionary movement opened the eyes of Europe to the diversity of cultures and in the world and, for some, made hellfire preaching not only morally objectionable but unrealistic and ineffec- tive. In his commentary St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, J. W. Colenso, the Bishop of Natal in South Africa, put forth Pau- line support for the idea of post-mortem salvation: “I entertain the ‘hidden hope’ that there are remedial processes, when this life is ended, of which at present we know nothing, but which the Lord, the

JOHN STUART MILL Righteous Judge, will administer, as He in His Wisdom shall see to be good.” with the certain foreknowledge that he Colenso’s ideas reflect the influence was creating them for this fate. Is there Darwinism was having upon Christian any moral enormity which might not be theology at the time. He believed not only justified by imitation of such a Deity?” that there will be gradations of punish- He retorted, “I will call no being good, ment after death, but also that these pun- who is not what I mean when I apply ishments would be remedial in function that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if and would effect a growth or progress to- such a being can sentence me to Hell for ward spiritual enlightenment. His reaction not so calling him, to Hell will I go.” against eternal punishment was based in part on his repugnance for the hypocrisy of Christians who, asserting that heathens Thomas would burn forever in hell, lived compla- cent and happy lives without lifting a fin- Rawson Birks ger to remove the burden of eternal doom (1810–1883) from those they condemned to it. Thomas Rawson Birks, a leading English Evangelical and a moderate Calvinist, ar- F. W. gued that those in hell, while cut off from the direct presence of God, would still have the Robertson opportunity to passively observe and enjoy (1816 –1853) God’s goodness. He also rejected the Calvin- ist doctrine of limited atonement and wid- Like F. D. Maurice, F. W. Robertson, ened the scope of salvation to include those the minister of Trinity Chapel in Brigh- outside the church. ton, saw eternal life or death in terms of quality of existence, not temporal dura- JOHN STUART MILL: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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tion. His confirmation class catechism eternal punishment as the impetus for included the following question and an- missions. “There is nothing less than an swer: INFINITE MORAL DIFFERENCE be­ “Q. Why is a correct faith necessary to tween the character of a Being who WILL salvation?” torture a . . . man or woman . . . through “A. Because what we believe becomes boundless eternity, and that of one who our character, forms part of us, and char- will NOT.” acter is salvation or damnation; what we Conditionalism, he believed, avoided the are, that is our heaven or our hell. Every moral problem of a loving God who punish- sin bears its own punishment.” es people eternally, while still providing an urgent motivation for evangelism. Edward White (1819–1898) James Baldwin An English Congregational minister, Brown White was a leading proponent of “con­ (1820–1884) ditional­ immortality,” an attempt to find a middle road between eternal Brown was very influenced by the punishment and universalism, both of evolutionary ideas popular at the time which assumed the natural immortality and considered the Fall not a fracture of the human soul. Conditionalists ar­ or interruption of creation but a step in gued that the soul is mortal and that the creation’s development towards a immortality is a gift from Christ to the higher state of being. He believed that redeemed. Therefore, the wicked will punishment for sin arises from the state eventually be annihilated. of sinfulness itself—defined primarily One of the most important pub­ as self-idolatry and self-absorption. The lications expounding this view was pit of hell is “the grave of a living soul” White’s book Life in Christ. White stifling in its own sin and tormented by avoided the term “annihilationism” and, the knowledge of itself. True repentance unlike some con­ditionalists,­ suggested arises, not out of sorrow over having vio- that there was an intermediate state of lated a law and fear of being punished, the soul between bodily death and the but out of love for the divine Father. “second death” at the Last Judgment, when the souls of the wicked would cease to exist. Drawing on Darwinian theory, George he described the gift of immortality as a kind of moral natural selection: “The MacDonald New Testament does not teach the (1824–1905) survival of the strongest, but the survival of the fittest’’—i.e., those who have faith Pastor, novelist, fantasy writer, and in God’s redeeming love. disciple of F. D. Maurice, George At a time when the spiritual fate MacDonald is best known today for his of those in other cultures was much profound influence on C. S. Lewis and debated, White rejected the doctrine of other 20th-century Christian writers.

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mercy are simply one and the same thing . . . I believe that no hell will be lacking which would help the just mercy of God to redeem his children.” For MacDonald, the darkest pit of hell existed for one purpose: to bring the prodigal to the knees of his Father in self-loathing and new-found love. “God in the dark can make a man thirst for the light, who never in the light sought but the dark.” Eventually, MacDonald im- plied, even the devil will relent and turn back to his Master, and hell itself will be destroyed. Finally, the Father’s love will be victorious. Essays and

The beginning point of MacDonald’s Reviews vs. theology was the universal love of God who “is always doing his best for every the Oxford man,” working all things together for the salvation of each of his children. Declaration ­Citing Hebrews 12:29, MacDonald ar­ The highly controversial volume gued that the “consuming fire” of God Essays and Reviews (1860) thrust the issues is in fact the inexorable purity of his of the inspiration of Scripture and eternal love, which burns away all impurities punishment into public debate. Liberal in the beloved, destroying that which is thinker Henry Bristow Wilson argued unlovable: “God loves them so that he that, at a time when Western Christians will burn them clean.” All punishment were discovering more and more about exists for the sake of repentance. the non-Christian world, it was necessary Hell, for MacDonald, is a mental to reconsider traditional dogmas about state of being which begins on earth eternal punishment. He suggested as for many people and may continue an alternative the possibility of further after death in a much more acute form. spiritual development after death, a kind The person in hell is just as much an of “second chance” . object of God’s love as the holiest In response to the Essays and Reviews , but this person, in resisting God, controversy, 11,000 Church of England experiences that love as wrath. Hell is clergymen signed the Oxford Declara- not a place of never-ending torment but tion in 1864 affirming their belief “that the a temporary condition of purgatorial ‘punishment’ of the ‘cursed,’ equally with suffering. “I believe that justice and the ‘life’ of the ‘righteous,’ is ‘everlasting.’” GEORGE MACDONALD: FROM STUART DODGSON COLLINGWOOD, THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LEWIS CARROLL (LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, 1898)

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arly defense of the church’s traditional F. W. Farrar teaching, What Is of Faith as to Everlasting (1831–1903) Punishment? Pusey argued that the or- thodox doctrine of hell does not require us to believe that punishment will be vs. E. B. Pusey physical, nor does it predict how many (1800–1882) will be lost or saved. We may never know how many people are in a state of grace or repent on their deathbeds. Of those who have never heard the gospel, he claimed, “each soul will be judged as it responded or did not respond to the de- gree of light which He bestowed on it.” Against Farrar, he affirmed that hell is eternal and that the fate of each person is determined at death.

In the late 1870s and 1880s, a well- Seventh-day known debate over the traditional doc- trine of eternal punishment took place Adventists between F. W. Farrar, canon of Westmin- (Formally established in 1863) ster, and E. B. Pusey, leader of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England. Far- The Seventh-day Adventist Church rar preached a series of sermons that he grew out of the Millerite movement later published in the book Eternal Hope. in America during the 19th century In it he affirmed what he believed to be ­(William Miller had predicted the Sec- the core of the biblical view of hell: “That ond Coming of Christ during 1843 and there is terrible retribution upon impeni- 1844). Their name reflects their obser- tent sin both here and hereafter; that with- vance of Saturday (the seventh day) as out holiness no man can see the Lord; that the Sabbath­ and their emphasis on the sin cannot be forgiven till it is forsaken imminent premillennial return of Christ. and repented of; that the doom which One of the distinguishing beliefs of falls on sin is both merciful and just.” Adventists is conditional immortality or He rejected, however, the ideas that annihilationism: Humans are an indivis- hell is a place of eternal, physical torment ible unity and do not have an immortal and that the majority of human beings soul that exists after death. God alone will end up there. He wanted to leave is immortal and grants eternal life to open the possibility of repentance after the redeemed­ at the resurrection when death. Many people interpreted the book Christ returns. Those who die enter into as teaching universalism, despite the fact an unconscious state until then, and the that Farrar claimed he was rejecting both unredeemed will be resurrected at the universalism and conditionalism. end of the Millennium, when the fire of In rebuttal, Pusey published a schol- God will destroy them. CH F.W. FARRAR: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN E.B. PUSEY: WIKIMEDIA / PUBLIC DOMAIN

Christian History 23 Modern Debates RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY Since the 19th century, and particu­ Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dare We larly in recent decades, discussions of Hope That All Men Be Saved? With hell have mushroomed. Which perspec­ a Short Discourse on Hell (Ignatius tives will prove most influential is yet to Press, 1988). Balthasar was one of the be seen. To help you explore the biblical most influential Catholic theologians and theological issues at stake in the cur­ of the 20th century, though his views rent debates over eternal punishment, on salvation and hell we’ve gathered a selection of books on are controversial. His hell and eschatology (the doctrine of the notable contribution last things, including the return of Christ, to the debate was his the Last Judgment, resurrection, and the theology of Holy Sat­ eternal destiny of human beings) written urday. After his death from a wide variety of viewpoints. of the cross, Christ, in Christian History does not necessarily solidarity with sinful endorse the perspectives in these books. humanity, descended into hell and experi­ Hilarion Algeyev, Christ the Con- enced utter rejection by God—the full queror of Hell (St. Vladimir’s Semi­ eternal punishment for the sin of all peo­ nary Press, 2009). ple. Balthasar is careful to leave open the This book by a possibility that someone can resist the of­ Russian ­Orthodox fer of salvation and be eternally lost, but arch­bishop looks he believes that Christians are command­ at the early church ed to hope that all will eventually repent ­fathers’ un­der­stand­ and find forgiveness. ing of Christ’s “Harrowing of Hell” William Barclay, A Spiritual Auto- (1 Peter 3:18-21) biography (Eerdmans, 1975). Bar­ and argues that clay’s New Testament commentaries for this event opened laypeople have had many evangelical the way for the sal­ readers. He says in his Spiritual Autobi- vation of all human beings. ography, “I am a convinced universalist. I believe that in the end all men will be Philip C. Almond, Heaven and Hell in gathered into the love of God,” and ex­ Enlightenment England (Cambridge plains his thought process in coming to University, 1994). Examines chang­ this position. ing ideas of heaven and hell in English thought from 1650-1750. Karl Barth, God Here and Now (Rout­ ledge, 2003) and Dogmatics in Out- Samuele Bacchiocchi, Immortality or line (Harper, 1959). In Barth’s theolo­ Resurrection? (Biblical Perspective, gy, Christ is the elect one, and all are elect 1998). A Seventh-Day Adventist theolo­ and reconciled in him; he is also the con­ gian challenges the traditional idea that demned one, bearing the punishment for humans have immortal souls. Foreword the sin of all people. Christ suffered hell by Clark Pinnock. in order to triumph over it. Yet Barth was

24 Christian History not a universalist. To pronounce dog­ Harry Blamires, Knowing the Truth matically on either side of this issue, he about Heaven and Hell: Our Choices believed, would be to place limits on the and Where They Lead Us, edited by freedom of God: “The proclamation of Peter Kreeft and J. I. Packer (Servant the Church must make allowance for this Books, 1988). British theologian and freedom of grace. . . . a grace which au­ novelist Blamires was a student and later tomatically would ultimately have to em­ friend of C. S. Lewis. brace each and every one would certainly­ not be free grace. It surely would not be John Blanchard, Whatever Happened God’s grace. But would it be God’s free to Hell? (Evangelical, 1993). Defense grace if we could absolutely deny that it of the traditional view of hell against uni­ could do that? Has Christ been sacrificed versalism and annihilationism. Foreword only for our sins? Has he not, accord­ by J. I. Packer. ing to 1 John 2:2, been sacrificed for the whole world? (God Here and Now) Donald G. Bloesch, The Last Things (InterVarsity, 2004). A theological Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About exploration­ of biblical themes of the Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every ­kingdom of God, the second coming of Person Who Ever Christ, angels, the Last Judgment, the Lived (HarperOne, ­millennium, resurrec­ 2011). Bell’s highly tion, purgatory, hell, controversial book rais­ and heaven. Bloesch ing questions about interprets hell as a the traditional under­ “sanatorium for sick, standing of heaven incurable souls” but and hell echoes many rejects universalism. themes debated in pre­ He claims a “reverent vious centuries of the ” regard­ church. His book has already prompted ing the eternal fate of a number of responses, including Erasing the wicked. Hell by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle (David C. Cook, 2011) and God Wins by Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson, Mark Galli, a former editor of Christian eds., The Last Things: Biblical & Theo- History magazine (Tyndale, 2011). logical Perspectives on Eschatology (Eerdmans, 2002). Various ecumenical Alan E. Bernstein, The Formation of views on the significance of Christian es­ Hell: Death and Retribution in the chatology for the contemporary church. ­Ancient and Early Christian Worlds (Cornell, 1993). With sections on Emil Brunner, Eternal Hope (Green­ ancient Greece and wood Press, 1954, 1972). Brunner was Rome, ancient Juda­ a Swiss Protestant pastor and one of the ism, the New Tes­ leading neo-orthodox theologians of the tament, and early 20th century. He accepts the seeming Christianity, this paradox in Scripture between the final “his­tory of hell” judgment of the wicked and the hope traces the develop­ of universal redemption, concluding­ ment of ideas about that what the Word confronts us with death, justice, and is a personal challenge: “We must lis­ eternal punishment. ten to the voice which speaks of world

Christian History 25 judgment as to the voice of God Him­ D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: self, in order that we may fear Him; we Christianity Confronts Pluralism must listen to the voice which speaks (Zondervan, 1996). One chapter address­ of universal redemption as to the voice es the popularity of annihilationism and of God Himself, in order that we may other alternative views of hell. love Him.” John Casey, Af- Harry Buis, The Doctrine of Eternal ter Lives: A Guide Punishment (Presbyterian and Re­ to Heaven, Hell & formed, 1957). A Reformed defense of Pur­gatory (Oxford the traditional view of eternal punishment, University Press, including a historical survey from the bibli­ 2009). A Cam­bridge cal through post-Reformation periods. scholar’s guide to views of the Jonathan M. Butler, Softly and Ten- in different centuries, derly Jesus Is Calling: Heaven and cultures, and religions. Hell in American Revivalism, 1870- 1920 (Carlson, 1991). A study of how J. Cooper, Body, Soul and the Life the imagery of hell and heaven was used ­Everlasting (Eerdmans, 1989). A criti­ by revivalist preachers during America’s cally acclaimed study of human nature and great awakenings. destiny that defends “holistic dualism.”

Nigel M. de S. Cameron, ed., Univer- William Crockett, ed., Four Views on salism and the Doctrine of Hell (Bak­ Hell (Zondervan, 1992). Four theo­ er, 1992). Written logians debate four different views of by evangelical au­ hell: literal (a physical place with eternal thors from a variety fire), metaphorical (eternal punishment, of perspectives, the but not literal fire), purgatorial (purifica­ essays touch on uni­ tion after death), and conditional (anni­ versalism, condition­ hilationism). al immortality, the atonement, the prob­ William Crockett & James Sigountos, lem of evil, hell, and eds., Through No Fault of Their Own? historical debates. (Baker, 1991). Essays by evangelical scholars taking various approaches to the Piero Camporesi, The Fear of Hell: question of the eternal fate of those who Images of Damnation and Salvation have never heard the gospel. in Early Modern Europe (Penn State Univ. Press, 1991). Scholarly study of Larry Dixon, The Other Side of the the vivid imagery Good News: Confronting the Con- of hell in the writ­ temporary Challenges to Jesus’ ings of 16th- and Teaching on Hell (Victor Books, 17th-century Ital­ 1992). A defense of the traditional ian preachers and doctrine of hell against the major al­ theologians. The sec­ ternatives of universalism, annihila­ ond part of the book tionism, and postmortem conversion. deals with images of Foreword by J. I. Packer. the Eucharist.

26 Christian History Ajith Fernando, Crucial Questions Eileen Gardiner, about Hell (Crossway, 1994). Exam­ Visions of Heaven ines biblical texts to answer a variety of and Hell Before questions about hell from a conservative Dante (Italica Press, evangelical perspective. Foreword by 1989). A scholarly J. I. Packer. study of heaven and hell in early medi­ LeRoy E. Froom, The Conditional- eval literature. ist Faith of Our Fathers, 2 vols. (Re­ view & Herald, 1965). A survey of conditionalist­ views throughout history by a Seventh-Day Adventist minister. John H. Gerstner, Jonathan Edwards Clark Pinnock called it “a classic defense on Heaven and Hell (Baker, 1980). of conditionalism.” Briefly summarizes the theology of heaven and hell of the theologian who preached Edward Fudge, The the famous “Sinners in the Hands Fire That Consumes:­ of an Angry God.” The Biblical Case for Conditional Im- John H. Gerstner, Repent or Perish: mortality (Providen­ With a Special Reference to the tial, 1982). Widely Conservative Attack on Hell (Soli Deo praised and influ­ Gloria, 1990). Gerstner wrote Repent ential book arguing or Perish at the request of John H. White, that the traditional President of the view of hell as eter­ National Associa­ nal conscious torment is unbiblical, and tion of Evangelicals defending the conditionalist view. (NAE), to defend the traditional doc­ Edward William Fudge and Robert trine of hell against A. Peterson, Two the rising popularity­ Views of Hell: A of annihilationism Biblical & Theo- (or ­conditionalism) logical Debate (In­ as articulated by terVarsity, 2000). Fudge and others. A dialogue on hell between two evan­ Paul Helm, ed., Jonathan Edwards: gelical theologians, Philosophical Theologian (Ashgate, with Fudge defend­ 2003). Essays by various scholars on the ing the conditional­ theology and philosophy of Edwards, in­ ist view and Peter­ cluding two chapters on hell. son defending the traditional view. Paul Helm, The Last Things (Banner Daniel P. Fuller, The Unity of the ­Bible: of Truth, 1989). A Reformed perspec­ Unfolding God’s Plan For ­Humanity tive on four “last things”: death, judg­ (Zondervan, 1992). Fuller is a profes­ ment, heaven, and hell. sor emeritus of hermeneutics and son of Charles E. Fuller, co-founder of Fuller , Death and Eternal Life Theological Seminary. Includes a chapter (Collins, 1976) and Evil and the God on “The Justness of an Eternal Hell.” of Love (MacMillan, 1966). Once an

Christian History 27 evangelical, Hick is one of the most out­ an essay by evan­ spoken and controversial proponents of gelical theologian J. religious pluralism and universalism in I. Packer, “Evangeli­ the last century. He rejects hell as incom­ cals and the Way of patible with a God of love and argues Salvation,” rejecting that after “a series of lives” all people will universalism and re­ eventually be saved. spectfully disagreeing with John Stott and Martha Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell: other evangelicals An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and who have advocated Christian Literature (Augsburg annihilationist views. Fortress Press, 1985). A scholarly study of the literary tradition of “tours Jonathan L. Kvanvig, The Problem of of hell” found in ancient and early Hell (Oxford, 1993). Kvanvig’s philosoph­ ­medieval ­Jewish and Christian apoca­ ical approach outlines the major categories lyptic writings. of thought related to hell, explaining the elements of the traditional “strong view” of Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the hell as well as how alternative views differ. Future (Eerdmans, 1979). Amillenni­ alist eschatology by a Reformed theolo­ C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (1945), gian, who believes that the Bible teaches The Problem of Pain (1940), and The the eternal punishment of the lost. Screwtape Letters (1942). Unlike the uni­ versalist tendencies of his “master” George Philip E. Hughes, The True Image: MacDonald, Lewis affirmed the reality of The Origin and Destiny of Man in an eternal hell despite its distastefulness Christ (Eerdmans, 1989). Annihila­ to modern sensibilities: “Some will not be tionist perspective. redeemed. There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Chris­ Rebecca Price Jan­ tianity than this.” He created new and en­ ney, Who Goes during images of hell and evil in fictional There? A Cultural works such as The Great Divorce and The History of Heaven Screwtape Letters. Rather than picturing a and Hell (Moody, place of fiery torture, Lewis spoke of hell 2009). Janney trac­ in terms of a state of becoming less and less es American beliefs a divine-image-bearing human being—a about the after­ danger that is inherent in all of us. More­ life from the Great over, hell is actually a reflection of God’s Awakening through mercy in setting limits on the evil that crea­ the 20th century. tures can do to themselves and to each oth­ er. Lewis placed the responsibility for hell Kenneth S. Kantzer and Carl F.H. squarely on the shoulders of humans who Henry, eds. Evangelical Affirma- freely choose self-will in rebellion against tions (Zondervan, 1990). This book is a compilation of papers presented at the 1989 Consultation on Evangelical Affir­ mation, a gathering of nearly 700 evan­ gelical scholars, theologians, and leaders co-sponsored by the NAE and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. It includes

28 Christian History God: “There are only two kinds of people Joseph Ratzinger, in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will Eschatology: Death be done,’ and those to whom God says, in and Eternal Life the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in (Catholic Univer­ Hell, choose it.” sity of America Press, 1988, 2007). Gregory MacDonald, The Evangelical An internationally re­- Universalist (Cascade Books, 2006). spected text by the This controversial book argues that one can current pope, Bene- remain true to Scripture and historic Chris­ dict XVI, dealing tianity while believing that all people will with Christ’s second coming, humans’ eventually be saved. death and immortality, the interme­- diate state, resurrection, the Last Judgment, Bernard McGinn, ed., The Encyclo- purgatory, heaven, and hell. About the lat­ pedia of Apocalypticism (Continuum, ter he says: “The idea of eternal damnation, 2000). This three-volume academic his­ which had taken ever clearer shape in the torical survey covers themes in apoca­ Judaism of the century or two before Christ, lyptic literature from Judaism and early has a firm place in the teaching of Jesus, as Christianity through the modern period. well as in the apostolic­ writings. Dogma takes its stand on solid ground when it Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of speaks of the existence of hell and of the Hope (Harper & Row, 1967) and eternity of its punishments.” The Coming of God (Augsburg, 1996). This German Reformed theo­ Jaroslav Pelikan, The Shape of Death: logian’s influential works on escha­ Life, Death, and Immortality in the tology take “hope” as the beginning Early Fathers (Greenwood Press, point of theology, specifically the hope 1961). A leading church historian looks we have in the resurrection of Christ at themes of the nature of death, resur­ and the vision of a new creation where rection, and the immortality of the soul in “God will be all in all.” Moltmann sees Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Christ’s descent into hell and victory Origen, and Irenaeus. over it as the ground for hope in the ultimate restoration of all things. Robert A. Peterson, Hell on Trial: the Case for Eternal Punish­ ­ Christopher W. Morgan and Robert ment (Presbyterian & A. Peterson, eds., Hell Under Fire: Reformed, 1995). A Modern Scholarship Re­invents con­servative defense Eternal Punishment (Zondervan, of the traditional doc­ 2004). Contributors are evangelicals who trine of hell against support the tradition­ annihilationism and al doctrine of hell as universalism, includ­ everlasting conscious ing a survey of bib­ punishment. The lical texts and histori­ book is a response to cal views. rising challenges to this view within the Clark H. Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s church, particularly Mercy: The Finality of Jesus in a World annihilationism and of Religions (Zondervan, 1992). A universalism. controversial evangelical theologian best

Christian History 29 known for his support for “open ,” Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney, Pinnock argues for an inclusivist attitude Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and towards the unevangelized, arguing Hell (Moody, 2010). Part of the series that salvation is through Christ alone The Essential Edwards Collection, this vol­ but that some people who have never ume seeks to reacquaint modern Chris­ heard the gospel may be saved because tians with the eschatologically driven of their response to the light they have. preaching and teaching of Edwards. Pinnock also wrote a number of articles defending anni­hilationism/conditional Jerry Walls, Hell: The Logic of Dam- immortality, including a chapter in nation (Notre Dame, 1992). Ap­ Four Views on Hell. proaching the topic from the perspective of philosophical theology, Walls argues John R. Rice, Hell! What the Bible that some traditional versions of the says about it (Sword of the Lord Pub­ doctrine of hell are intellectually defen­ lishers, 1945). “An exposition of the sible and morally compatible with divine doctrine of eternal punishment in a burn­ goodness, especially ing hell for all the unsaved people of all on the grounds of ages” by a Baptist evangelist and found­ humans’ freedom to ing editor of the fundamentalist newspa­ choose evil. per The Sword of the Lord. Jerry Walls, ed., Geoffrey Rowell, Hell and the Vic- Oxford Handbook torians (Clarendon Press, 1974). A of Eschatology study of 19th-century theological con­ (Oxford, 2008). An troversies about eternal punishment and essential reference the afterlife. book for anyone in­ terested in this topic. The 700-page vol­ Hans Schwarz, ume includes chapters on hell, purga­ Es­chatology (Ee­ tory, universalism, and annihilationism. rdmans, 2001). A comprehensive N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: survey of Christian Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrec- beliefs about the tion, and the Mission of the Church return of Christ, (HarperOne, 2008). Wright debunks the Last Judgment, pop­ular thinking about the afterlife in hell, heaven, and order to reassert the heart of Christian Christian hope. hope: God’s renewal of the whole creation, launched by the resurrection of John Stott and David L. Edwards, Christ. Though primarily a book about Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal- heaven, resurrection, and the new cre­ Evangelical Dialogue (InterVarsity, ation, Wright addresses the question of 1988). This book caused a stir when hell. Given the scant New Testament ref­ Stott, one of the most highly respected erences, he warns against dogmatism on and influential evangelical leaders in the the topic but views the progress of sin as world, tentatively voiced his support for a dehumanizing process, until ultimate­ annihilationism as a biblical alternative ly one who persists in rejecting grace to eternal conscious torment and wrote, ceases to reflect the image of God, and “I cherish the hope that the majority of ceases to be human, passing “beyond the human race will be saved.” hope and beyond pity.” CH

30 Christian History

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