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189 7 Hell: The Perpetual Retribution of the Sinner Hell is not to love any more. —Georges Bernanos1 The possibility of perpetual condemnation of the unrepentant sinner is a nonnegotiable element of the doctrinal patrimony of Christian faith. This does not mean of course that Christians “believe” as such in hell. Much less are they obliged to believe that some specific individuals have actually been condemned, or that a certain percentage of believers have forfeited, or will have to forfeit, eternal life forever. Rather they believe in a God who has created humans in such a way that they are capable of freely losing the reward of communion with the Trinity promised to those who are faithful, if they do so in such a clear-minded, responsible, and irrevocable way, that their alienation from God becomes insuperable . Acceptance of the doctrine of eternal condemnation (commonly termed “hell”) has important anthropological implications, and more important theological ones. Anthropological implications, in that human freedom is considered such that humans are truly to blame for their perdition; theological ones, because eternal perdition is no less than the loss of God, and God created all humans with a capacity for rejecting a love he is not prepared to impose on them. Paradoxically, the existence of hell—or more precisely the real possibility of eternal condemnation or “eternal death”2 —is based on two of the most sublime and liberating truths of the Christian faith: that God is a faithful, loving God, and that humans are truly free. The Church has consistently taught this doctrine throughout history.3 As re1 . G.Bernanos, Diary of a Country Priest (London: Catholic Book Club, 1937), 177. 2. On terminological questions, see J.J.Alviar, Escatología, 245–46. 3. The Quicumque Symbol professes that “those who do good will go to eternal life; those who do evil, to eternal fire,” DS 76. Pope Vigil at the Synod of Constantinople (543) condemned Origen’s position in respect of the temporality of punishment: can. 9, DS 411. Pope Innocent III in his Profession of Faith at Lateran Council IV (1215) proclaimed the eternity of condemnation: DS 801. He also taught that “the punishment for original sin is the exclusion from the vision of God, while that for actual sin is the perpetual torment in Gehenna,” DS 780. Other medieval Church documents speak in similar terms: DS 858 and 1306. Paul VI in his 1968 Profession of Faith taught that “those who have opposed God to the end 190 The Object of Christian Hope gards recent Church declarations, the following ones from Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church should suffice. Lumen gentium speaks of the vigilance Christians should have, “so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with [the Lord] into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed and not, like the wicked and slothful servants (Mt 25:26), be ordered to depart into the eternal life (Mt 25:41), into the outer darkness where ‘men will weep and gnash their teeth’ (Mt 22:13 & 25:30).”4 And in the Catechism: “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire.’”5 In this chapter on eternal punishment we shall consider the following five questions: the development of the doctrine of perpetual condemnation in Scripture and the Fathers of the Church; the nature of hell from a theological standpoint ; its relationship with the justice and mercy of God; how real the possibility of some being condemned is; and the question of the hope of universal salvation. Perpetual Condemnation in Scripture and the Fathers The notion of some form of retribution after death was assumed generally by many, if not most, religious visions with which the people of Israel had contact.6 This should not come as a surprise given the perennial human desire for both immortality and justice. Humanity has never been able to live with the thought of grave crimes remaining unredressed. The consolidation of the doctrine of hell is the natural consequence of this desire for justice: humans must pay, before or after death, for their crimes, unless they are prepared to repent and make amends beforehand. It may come as a surprise, however, to find that among the Jews the idea of postmortem retribution...

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