Richard McCarty
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199567720
- eISBN:
- 9780191721465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567720.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, History of Philosophy
Being evil by nature we ought nevertheless to become good; and so we can. Kant's philosophy is supposed to give us grounds for hope in an “afterlife”, when we can be good, or at least better, and ...
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Being evil by nature we ought nevertheless to become good; and so we can. Kant's philosophy is supposed to give us grounds for hope in an “afterlife”, when we can be good, or at least better, and when happiness will be proportioned to virtue as the highest good. Yet it remains unclear how to understand the temporal relation of this present, sensible life and the afterlife. Some of Kant's reflections suggest that heaven and hell may belong to the intelligible world we already occupy. Because the world would have been created for a moral purpose, and because the highest good is a just reward, we have rational grounds for hope in an afterlife.Less
Being evil by nature we ought nevertheless to become good; and so we can. Kant's philosophy is supposed to give us grounds for hope in an “afterlife”, when we can be good, or at least better, and when happiness will be proportioned to virtue as the highest good. Yet it remains unclear how to understand the temporal relation of this present, sensible life and the afterlife. Some of Kant's reflections suggest that heaven and hell may belong to the intelligible world we already occupy. Because the world would have been created for a moral purpose, and because the highest good is a just reward, we have rational grounds for hope in an afterlife.
Richard Swinburne
- Published in print:
- 1989
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198248491
- eISBN:
- 9780191598555
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198248490.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
When we do good or harm to each other, we acquire merit or guilt; deserve praise or blame, reward or punishment, and may need to make atonement. Others may need to forgive us, or show mercy to us. ...
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When we do good or harm to each other, we acquire merit or guilt; deserve praise or blame, reward or punishment, and may need to make atonement. Others may need to forgive us, or show mercy to us. The first part of this book (Chs. 1–7) is an account of how these moral concepts apply to humans in their dealings with each other. The second part (Chs. 8–12) then applies the results of the first part to reach conclusions about which versions of traditional Christian doctrines that utilize these notions are morally plausible. It considers the doctrines of sin and original sin, redemption, sanctification, Heaven and Hell.Less
When we do good or harm to each other, we acquire merit or guilt; deserve praise or blame, reward or punishment, and may need to make atonement. Others may need to forgive us, or show mercy to us. The first part of this book (Chs. 1–7) is an account of how these moral concepts apply to humans in their dealings with each other. The second part (Chs. 8–12) then applies the results of the first part to reach conclusions about which versions of traditional Christian doctrines that utilize these notions are morally plausible. It considers the doctrines of sin and original sin, redemption, sanctification, Heaven and Hell.
Henry Chadwick
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199264575
- eISBN:
- 9780191698958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264575.003.0039
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Early Christian Studies
This chapter discusses the debate about purgatory. To normal Latin view immediately on death souls received their reward, the damned to hell, the just to paradise, the imperfect to purification in ...
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This chapter discusses the debate about purgatory. To normal Latin view immediately on death souls received their reward, the damned to hell, the just to paradise, the imperfect to purification in Purgatory. Discussions and its circulation precipitated reactions on the subject of disagreement between Latin and Greek churches. The report of the debate about purgatory which survived from the Otranto meeting gives the Greek side, but a Latin account went at once to Rome.Less
This chapter discusses the debate about purgatory. To normal Latin view immediately on death souls received their reward, the damned to hell, the just to paradise, the imperfect to purification in Purgatory. Discussions and its circulation precipitated reactions on the subject of disagreement between Latin and Greek churches. The report of the debate about purgatory which survived from the Otranto meeting gives the Greek side, but a Latin account went at once to Rome.
Stephen T. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199284597
- eISBN:
- 9780191603778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199284598.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter defends two venerable but largely ignored concepts in the general area of atonement: the wrath of God and the blood of Christ. The first is important because it constitutes a barrier ...
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This chapter defends two venerable but largely ignored concepts in the general area of atonement: the wrath of God and the blood of Christ. The first is important because it constitutes a barrier against any sort of general moral or religious relativism. The second is important because it is always costly to rectify a terribly wrong situation. Contrary to the theory that Jesus’ life and death was essentially a fine moral example to emulate, some sort of robust atonement, like the death of the Son of God, is necessary. It is also argued that hell is compatible with the love of God.Less
This chapter defends two venerable but largely ignored concepts in the general area of atonement: the wrath of God and the blood of Christ. The first is important because it constitutes a barrier against any sort of general moral or religious relativism. The second is important because it is always costly to rectify a terribly wrong situation. Contrary to the theory that Jesus’ life and death was essentially a fine moral example to emulate, some sort of robust atonement, like the death of the Son of God, is necessary. It is also argued that hell is compatible with the love of God.
John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
The Dantean hell was ordered, even hierarchical. The hell of the Catholic Counter‐Reformation, as well as most Protestant versions of hell, gave up that order in the interests of the psychological ...
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The Dantean hell was ordered, even hierarchical. The hell of the Catholic Counter‐Reformation, as well as most Protestant versions of hell, gave up that order in the interests of the psychological drama of damnation, with millions of the damned crushed promiscuously together, with a revolting stench. The chapter examines some Jesuit versions of hell, including one whose fearsome picture of the eternal and unspeakable sufferings of the damned bears a remarkable resemblance to the sermons on hell in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man of James Joyce. It traces an English tradition of empirical speculation about the exact nature of hell, the composition of its fires, and where it might be located in the universe (in the sun, for instance), and the gradual rise in a sentiment hostile to the idea of everlasting punishment.Less
The Dantean hell was ordered, even hierarchical. The hell of the Catholic Counter‐Reformation, as well as most Protestant versions of hell, gave up that order in the interests of the psychological drama of damnation, with millions of the damned crushed promiscuously together, with a revolting stench. The chapter examines some Jesuit versions of hell, including one whose fearsome picture of the eternal and unspeakable sufferings of the damned bears a remarkable resemblance to the sermons on hell in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man of James Joyce. It traces an English tradition of empirical speculation about the exact nature of hell, the composition of its fires, and where it might be located in the universe (in the sun, for instance), and the gradual rise in a sentiment hostile to the idea of everlasting punishment.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195181579
- eISBN:
- 9780199786602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195181573.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Sartre’s No Exit is a conscientiously trite play that explores some profound truths about what Sartre (in Being and Nothingness) calls Being-for-Others. No Exit presents us with three perverse ...
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Sartre’s No Exit is a conscientiously trite play that explores some profound truths about what Sartre (in Being and Nothingness) calls Being-for-Others. No Exit presents us with three perverse characters in Hell who are forced to spend eternity together. The play explores the nature of human relationships, how people deceive one another and deceive themselves. Sartre’s conclusion is “Hell is other people”.Less
Sartre’s No Exit is a conscientiously trite play that explores some profound truths about what Sartre (in Being and Nothingness) calls Being-for-Others. No Exit presents us with three perverse characters in Hell who are forced to spend eternity together. The play explores the nature of human relationships, how people deceive one another and deceive themselves. Sartre’s conclusion is “Hell is other people”.
Jason C Bivins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195340815
- eISBN:
- 9780199867158
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340815.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book investigates American political religions by studying how conservative evangelical political orientations are shaped and spread by pop cultural narratives of fear and horror. This book ...
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This book investigates American political religions by studying how conservative evangelical political orientations are shaped and spread by pop cultural narratives of fear and horror. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to what it calls the “religion of fear”, a form of religious social criticism produced and sustained in evangelical engagements with pop culture. The book's cases include Jack Chick's cartoon tracts, anti‐metal and anti‐rap preaching, the Halloween dramas known as Hell Houses, and Left Behind novels. By situating them in their sociopolitical contexts and drawing out their creators' motivations, the book locates in these entertainments a highly politicized worldview comprising evangelical piety, the aesthetics of genre horror, a narrative of American decline, and a combative approach to public politics. The book also proposes its own theoretical categories for explaining the cases: the Erotics of Fear and the Demonology Within. What does it say about American public life that such ideas of fearful religion and violent politics have become normalized? The book engages this question critically, establishing links and resonances between the cultural politics of evangelical pop, the activism of the New Christian Right, and the political exhaustion facing American democracy.Less
This book investigates American political religions by studying how conservative evangelical political orientations are shaped and spread by pop cultural narratives of fear and horror. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to what it calls the “religion of fear”, a form of religious social criticism produced and sustained in evangelical engagements with pop culture. The book's cases include Jack Chick's cartoon tracts, anti‐metal and anti‐rap preaching, the Halloween dramas known as Hell Houses, and Left Behind novels. By situating them in their sociopolitical contexts and drawing out their creators' motivations, the book locates in these entertainments a highly politicized worldview comprising evangelical piety, the aesthetics of genre horror, a narrative of American decline, and a combative approach to public politics. The book also proposes its own theoretical categories for explaining the cases: the Erotics of Fear and the Demonology Within. What does it say about American public life that such ideas of fearful religion and violent politics have become normalized? The book engages this question critically, establishing links and resonances between the cultural politics of evangelical pop, the activism of the New Christian Right, and the political exhaustion facing American democracy.
Jason C. Bivins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195340815
- eISBN:
- 9780199867158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340815.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The subject of this chapter is the growing popularity of Christian alternatives to Halloween haunted houses. The most famous of these is Keenan Roberts's Hell House, a multiscene morality play that ...
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The subject of this chapter is the growing popularity of Christian alternatives to Halloween haunted houses. The most famous of these is Keenan Roberts's Hell House, a multiscene morality play that uses the techniques of horror entertainment to illustrate both a general and a specific narrative of social and political decline. These phenomena became very popular — attracting the attention of both supporters and critics — and explicitly engage the hot‐button political issues central to New Christian Right activism and organizing. Hell Houses' individual scenes illustrate to adolescents the harms (such as abortion, gay weddings, and school shootings) awaiting them in a society that — nominally committed to tolerance and social harmony — has unwittingly drawn them toward hellfire.Less
The subject of this chapter is the growing popularity of Christian alternatives to Halloween haunted houses. The most famous of these is Keenan Roberts's Hell House, a multiscene morality play that uses the techniques of horror entertainment to illustrate both a general and a specific narrative of social and political decline. These phenomena became very popular — attracting the attention of both supporters and critics — and explicitly engage the hot‐button political issues central to New Christian Right activism and organizing. Hell Houses' individual scenes illustrate to adolescents the harms (such as abortion, gay weddings, and school shootings) awaiting them in a society that — nominally committed to tolerance and social harmony — has unwittingly drawn them toward hellfire.
Witham Larry
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394757
- eISBN:
- 9780199777372
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394757.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Religion is a form of risk management in human lives and in religious groups. Pascal’s Wager famously illustrates the calculation of loss and benefit in religious belief. But there are other economic ...
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Religion is a form of risk management in human lives and in religious groups. Pascal’s Wager famously illustrates the calculation of loss and benefit in religious belief. But there are other economic models for how religion deals with uncertainty, and this chapter looks at three. First is insurance against risk, with its byproduct of “moral hazard. Second is the need to verify the reliability of religious “goods,” which economists call “credence goods.” Religions, like businesses, seek to assure consumers of reliability. Finally, consumers search for reliable information, which in religion means explanations about the gods, the afterlife, and ultimate religious consequences, such as hell. Typically, monotheistic faiths are deemed “high risk” religions because of their belief in ultimate consequences. But all religions have this feature to some extent, speaking to the human incentive to avoid risk.Less
Religion is a form of risk management in human lives and in religious groups. Pascal’s Wager famously illustrates the calculation of loss and benefit in religious belief. But there are other economic models for how religion deals with uncertainty, and this chapter looks at three. First is insurance against risk, with its byproduct of “moral hazard. Second is the need to verify the reliability of religious “goods,” which economists call “credence goods.” Religions, like businesses, seek to assure consumers of reliability. Finally, consumers search for reliable information, which in religion means explanations about the gods, the afterlife, and ultimate religious consequences, such as hell. Typically, monotheistic faiths are deemed “high risk” religions because of their belief in ultimate consequences. But all religions have this feature to some extent, speaking to the human incentive to avoid risk.
John Marenbon
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691142555
- eISBN:
- 9781400866359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691142555.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter considers the highly paradoxical position occupied by ancient pagans, who are considered genuinely and outstandingly virtuous and yet at the same are condemned to Hell. This paradox is ...
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This chapter considers the highly paradoxical position occupied by ancient pagans, who are considered genuinely and outstandingly virtuous and yet at the same are condemned to Hell. This paradox is discussed in detail before the chapter goes on to explain Dante's position in this paradox, by looking at Dante's attitude to pagan wisdom and its relation to Christianity, especially his adoption, but transformation, of the position of limited relativism which strictly separates the spheres of philosophical enquiry and Christian doctrine. The damnation of virtuous pagans turns out to be the price required by this approach, which remains deliberately paradoxical, despite Dante's innovation of placing them in a special part of Hell, where there are no physical torments. Furthermore, the chapter looks at another aspect of Dante's discussion of paganism — his treatment of Epicurus and his followers — and links it to a comparison with his great admirer and commentator, Boccaccio.Less
This chapter considers the highly paradoxical position occupied by ancient pagans, who are considered genuinely and outstandingly virtuous and yet at the same are condemned to Hell. This paradox is discussed in detail before the chapter goes on to explain Dante's position in this paradox, by looking at Dante's attitude to pagan wisdom and its relation to Christianity, especially his adoption, but transformation, of the position of limited relativism which strictly separates the spheres of philosophical enquiry and Christian doctrine. The damnation of virtuous pagans turns out to be the price required by this approach, which remains deliberately paradoxical, despite Dante's innovation of placing them in a special part of Hell, where there are no physical torments. Furthermore, the chapter looks at another aspect of Dante's discussion of paganism — his treatment of Epicurus and his followers — and links it to a comparison with his great admirer and commentator, Boccaccio.
John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Christianity from its earliest times taught the existence of heaven and hell as places where good and evil deeds in this life were judged, rewarded and punished. In the course of time ideas both of ...
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Christianity from its earliest times taught the existence of heaven and hell as places where good and evil deeds in this life were judged, rewarded and punished. In the course of time ideas both of promised bliss and threatened woe went beyond anything than can have a purchase on human experience. Nevertheless, in their most developed form, doctrines of heaven and hell were explorations of moral psychology, as seen in their greatest imaginative expression, Dante's Divine Comedy. The present book explores and comments on ideas about post-mortem existence from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece and Rome, as well as in Christianity and (more briefly) Islam. Having traced the early history, growth, and refinement of these ideas over five millennia, it ends with the discordant voices of spiritualism, liberal theology, Mormonism, Evangelical Christian preachers of Rapture and Armageddon, modern Muslim apocalyptics, and Coptic visions of the Last Days. In a Prologue and an Epilogue the ironic treatment of some of these themes in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is evoked to set them in a context of modernity.Less
Christianity from its earliest times taught the existence of heaven and hell as places where good and evil deeds in this life were judged, rewarded and punished. In the course of time ideas both of promised bliss and threatened woe went beyond anything than can have a purchase on human experience. Nevertheless, in their most developed form, doctrines of heaven and hell were explorations of moral psychology, as seen in their greatest imaginative expression, Dante's Divine Comedy. The present book explores and comments on ideas about post-mortem existence from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece and Rome, as well as in Christianity and (more briefly) Islam. Having traced the early history, growth, and refinement of these ideas over five millennia, it ends with the discordant voices of spiritualism, liberal theology, Mormonism, Evangelical Christian preachers of Rapture and Armageddon, modern Muslim apocalyptics, and Coptic visions of the Last Days. In a Prologue and an Epilogue the ironic treatment of some of these themes in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is evoked to set them in a context of modernity.
Isabel Moreira
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199736041
- eISBN:
- 9780199894628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199736041.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter examines the role of punishment in correction as discussed by early Christian authors and the Roman elite as a way of understanding how punishment became associated with both hell and ...
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This chapter examines the role of punishment in correction as discussed by early Christian authors and the Roman elite as a way of understanding how punishment became associated with both hell and purgatory. It examines metaphors of paternal power and slavery. It suggests that the idea that the elect, too, must suffer violence in the afterlife arose from discussions about original sin at a time when the Roman elite were increasingly anxious about the erosion of legal immunities that had traditionally protected them from judicial torture. It highlights the ongoing importance of the metaphor of slavery to the way corporeal punishment was described in the afterlife, particularly in the Vision of Paul, and it considers notions of retributive justice and the fear of hell.Less
This chapter examines the role of punishment in correction as discussed by early Christian authors and the Roman elite as a way of understanding how punishment became associated with both hell and purgatory. It examines metaphors of paternal power and slavery. It suggests that the idea that the elect, too, must suffer violence in the afterlife arose from discussions about original sin at a time when the Roman elite were increasingly anxious about the erosion of legal immunities that had traditionally protected them from judicial torture. It highlights the ongoing importance of the metaphor of slavery to the way corporeal punishment was described in the afterlife, particularly in the Vision of Paul, and it considers notions of retributive justice and the fear of hell.
Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Haddad
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195156492
- eISBN:
- 9780199834662
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195156498.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
Islamic concepts of life after death, reward and punishment, human decision, and divine judgment have always held a certain fascination for Western readers. Recent world events have served only to ...
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Islamic concepts of life after death, reward and punishment, human decision, and divine judgment have always held a certain fascination for Western readers. Recent world events have served only to heighten those interests and to raise new questions about how Muslims understand the developments that are to signal the coming of the day of resurrection, whether martyrs have immediate access to paradise, who are the black‐eyed maidens waiting in paradise for the believers, and who will intercede for communities of Muslims, Christians, and Jews at the final judgment. The text looks at two distinct periods of time in the ongoing story of life after death in Islam. First is the period between individual death and the coming of the day of resurrection, about which the Qur’an says little and the traditions a great deal. Second is the series of events that will take place at the time of judgment, which are detailed thoroughly by the Qur’an. Interpretations of the materials related to each of these periods are provided first from the writings of the classical exegetes and theologians, and then from those of contemporary Muslim thinkers and writers. The narratives are presented so as to give the reader an overview of the whole process from death to resurrection to final consignment in the abodes of reward or of punishment. The entire discussion is placed within the framework of the Islamic understanding of God's expectations of human belief and behavior, and human ethical responses to those expectations. Two appendices deal respectively with evidence of afterlife concerns in pre‐Islamic Arabia, and the special case of women and children in the afterlife.Less
Islamic concepts of life after death, reward and punishment, human decision, and divine judgment have always held a certain fascination for Western readers. Recent world events have served only to heighten those interests and to raise new questions about how Muslims understand the developments that are to signal the coming of the day of resurrection, whether martyrs have immediate access to paradise, who are the black‐eyed maidens waiting in paradise for the believers, and who will intercede for communities of Muslims, Christians, and Jews at the final judgment. The text looks at two distinct periods of time in the ongoing story of life after death in Islam. First is the period between individual death and the coming of the day of resurrection, about which the Qur’an says little and the traditions a great deal. Second is the series of events that will take place at the time of judgment, which are detailed thoroughly by the Qur’an. Interpretations of the materials related to each of these periods are provided first from the writings of the classical exegetes and theologians, and then from those of contemporary Muslim thinkers and writers. The narratives are presented so as to give the reader an overview of the whole process from death to resurrection to final consignment in the abodes of reward or of punishment. The entire discussion is placed within the framework of the Islamic understanding of God's expectations of human belief and behavior, and human ethical responses to those expectations. Two appendices deal respectively with evidence of afterlife concerns in pre‐Islamic Arabia, and the special case of women and children in the afterlife.
Morwenna Ludlow
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270225
- eISBN:
- 9780191600661
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270224.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This monograph examines the claim that ultimately all people will be saved––i.e. that hell will not be eternal and that God will be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28). Many Christians have expressed some ...
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This monograph examines the claim that ultimately all people will be saved––i.e. that hell will not be eternal and that God will be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28). Many Christians have expressed some form of this belief in universal salvation (sometimes known as universalism, or the apokatastasis), despite the fact that it has rarely been regarded as fully orthodox. The book focuses on the concept of universal salvation in the theology of the fourth‐century Cappadocian Father Gregory of Nyssa and the twentieth‐century Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. It undertakes detailed studies of eschatology (theology of the ‘last things’) in Gregory's and Rahner's thought, paying particular attention to their contrasting cultural and intellectual contexts: Gregory was educated in rhetoric and in the philosophy of late antiquity (particularly platonism); Rahner was influenced both by Thomism and by later philosophers such as Kant, Maréchal, and Heidegger. Given the two theologians’ contrasting worldviews, this book asks whether their ideas of universal salvation are fundamentally the same––and whether universalism can be regarded as a genuinely Christian idea. It concludes that although Rahner expressed a hope that all will be saved and Gregory asserted universalism more confidently, both men base their convictions on a profound and orthodox Christian belief in the all‐encompassing love of God, which has come to fruition in Jesus Christ and is witnessed to in Scripture. The book's final chapter also compares how each theologian deals with the difficult issues raised by the idea of universal salvation, such as human freedom, punishment, and divine justice. It concludes that while Gregory's answers are sometimes clearer, Rahner's are more nuanced and have a subtlety that fits better with scientific discoveries about human nature, the mind and the development of the world. Finally, the book analyses the differences in the two ideas of universal salvation, asks whether one can speak of a ‘tradition’ of universalism in Christianity and reflects more broadly on the causes of development of Christian doctrine.Less
This monograph examines the claim that ultimately all people will be saved––i.e. that hell will not be eternal and that God will be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28). Many Christians have expressed some form of this belief in universal salvation (sometimes known as universalism, or the apokatastasis), despite the fact that it has rarely been regarded as fully orthodox. The book focuses on the concept of universal salvation in the theology of the fourth‐century Cappadocian Father Gregory of Nyssa and the twentieth‐century Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. It undertakes detailed studies of eschatology (theology of the ‘last things’) in Gregory's and Rahner's thought, paying particular attention to their contrasting cultural and intellectual contexts: Gregory was educated in rhetoric and in the philosophy of late antiquity (particularly platonism); Rahner was influenced both by Thomism and by later philosophers such as Kant, Maréchal, and Heidegger. Given the two theologians’ contrasting worldviews, this book asks whether their ideas of universal salvation are fundamentally the same––and whether universalism can be regarded as a genuinely Christian idea. It concludes that although Rahner expressed a hope that all will be saved and Gregory asserted universalism more confidently, both men base their convictions on a profound and orthodox Christian belief in the all‐encompassing love of God, which has come to fruition in Jesus Christ and is witnessed to in Scripture. The book's final chapter also compares how each theologian deals with the difficult issues raised by the idea of universal salvation, such as human freedom, punishment, and divine justice. It concludes that while Gregory's answers are sometimes clearer, Rahner's are more nuanced and have a subtlety that fits better with scientific discoveries about human nature, the mind and the development of the world. Finally, the book analyses the differences in the two ideas of universal salvation, asks whether one can speak of a ‘tradition’ of universalism in Christianity and reflects more broadly on the causes of development of Christian doctrine.
Peter J. Thuesen
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195174274
- eISBN:
- 9780199872138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174274.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Church History
This chapter examines the emergence of Arminianism and other challenges to absolute predestination in 18th‐century America. Much of the early opposition to the old Puritan synthesis came from ...
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This chapter examines the emergence of Arminianism and other challenges to absolute predestination in 18th‐century America. Much of the early opposition to the old Puritan synthesis came from Anglican missionaries bent on bringing their wayward brethren back into England's established church. Colonial figures such as Samuel Johnson of Connecticut derided Calvinist predestination as antithetical to biblical truth. Many Anglicans were motivated by high‐church sacramentalism, and this outlook influenced the young John Wesley, the Methodist founder and the most famous Arminian in American history. Wesley came to blows with more Calvinistic revivalists such as George Whitefield over predestination, and the resulting rift persists in evangelicalism to this day. Because the 18th century was also the age of Enlightenment, it bequeathed to American culture an enduring strain of rationalism regarding predestination and the associated doctrines of hell and providence. The chapter shows how these emergent doubts altered popular thinking about divine sovereignty.Less
This chapter examines the emergence of Arminianism and other challenges to absolute predestination in 18th‐century America. Much of the early opposition to the old Puritan synthesis came from Anglican missionaries bent on bringing their wayward brethren back into England's established church. Colonial figures such as Samuel Johnson of Connecticut derided Calvinist predestination as antithetical to biblical truth. Many Anglicans were motivated by high‐church sacramentalism, and this outlook influenced the young John Wesley, the Methodist founder and the most famous Arminian in American history. Wesley came to blows with more Calvinistic revivalists such as George Whitefield over predestination, and the resulting rift persists in evangelicalism to this day. Because the 18th century was also the age of Enlightenment, it bequeathed to American culture an enduring strain of rationalism regarding predestination and the associated doctrines of hell and providence. The chapter shows how these emergent doubts altered popular thinking about divine sovereignty.
John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter explores the evaporation, in effect, of real assent to beliefs in the afterlife, especially in hell. Starting from the author's personal experiences of Catholicism before Vatican II, it ...
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This chapter explores the evaporation, in effect, of real assent to beliefs in the afterlife, especially in hell. Starting from the author's personal experiences of Catholicism before Vatican II, it goes on to consider whether in the modern world such beliefs are inevitably entertained with ironic overtones. The hell sermons in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce are of exceptional interest here, for Joyce is able to deploy irony toward a boy's belief in hell, and the Catholic traditions that stand behind it, while holding back from satire.Less
This chapter explores the evaporation, in effect, of real assent to beliefs in the afterlife, especially in hell. Starting from the author's personal experiences of Catholicism before Vatican II, it goes on to consider whether in the modern world such beliefs are inevitably entertained with ironic overtones. The hell sermons in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce are of exceptional interest here, for Joyce is able to deploy irony toward a boy's belief in hell, and the Catholic traditions that stand behind it, while holding back from satire.
John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
The Aristotelian background to Dante, and Dante's expressing in poetic terms the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas is explored. Like Swift, Dante presents what Aristotle called “probable ...
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The Aristotelian background to Dante, and Dante's expressing in poetic terms the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas is explored. Like Swift, Dante presents what Aristotle called “probable impossibilities,” and shows sinners punished less by an external agency than by their own obsessive immersion in their vices—hence a chosen eternity of suffering. The structure of Inferno: sins against charity, in increasing gravity, lead to images of spirits in ice, removed as far as possible from the light and warmth of the good, which is God. The precision and concreteness of the moral and spiritual geography of Dante, and the paradox that love created hell, are explored.Less
The Aristotelian background to Dante, and Dante's expressing in poetic terms the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas is explored. Like Swift, Dante presents what Aristotle called “probable impossibilities,” and shows sinners punished less by an external agency than by their own obsessive immersion in their vices—hence a chosen eternity of suffering. The structure of Inferno: sins against charity, in increasing gravity, lead to images of spirits in ice, removed as far as possible from the light and warmth of the good, which is God. The precision and concreteness of the moral and spiritual geography of Dante, and the paradox that love created hell, are explored.
Jeffrey A. Trumbower
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195140996
- eISBN:
- 9780199834747
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195140990.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This book investigates a variety of traditions in early Christianity in which various Christians sought to secure salvation after death for non‐Christians. Sometimes the dead would appear in dreams ...
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This book investigates a variety of traditions in early Christianity in which various Christians sought to secure salvation after death for non‐Christians. Sometimes the dead would appear in dreams to request prayer for the dead; sometimes soon‐to‐be martyrs were thought to have special powers to rescue even the non‐Christian dead. Some Christians practiced a vicarious baptism for the dead. Others imagined Christ offering salvation to the dead during the harrowing of hell (his descent to the realm of the dead). Some Christians went so far as to posit an ultimate universal salvation for everyone who had ever lived. The book culminates with a study of Augustine, who strove to limit these practices and beliefs to prayer for the Christian dead with light sins only. In this process, western notions of purgatory began to develop as a place where baptized Christians could be purified for eternal life with God.Less
This book investigates a variety of traditions in early Christianity in which various Christians sought to secure salvation after death for non‐Christians. Sometimes the dead would appear in dreams to request prayer for the dead; sometimes soon‐to‐be martyrs were thought to have special powers to rescue even the non‐Christian dead. Some Christians practiced a vicarious baptism for the dead. Others imagined Christ offering salvation to the dead during the harrowing of hell (his descent to the realm of the dead). Some Christians went so far as to posit an ultimate universal salvation for everyone who had ever lived. The book culminates with a study of Augustine, who strove to limit these practices and beliefs to prayer for the Christian dead with light sins only. In this process, western notions of purgatory began to develop as a place where baptized Christians could be purified for eternal life with God.
Anna Wierzbicka
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195137330
- eISBN:
- 9780199867905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195137337.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Explicates the message of another pair of parables, focusing in particular on the word holon, “all,” in the parable of the Leaven (“till it was all leavened”). The chapter argues that the parable ...
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Explicates the message of another pair of parables, focusing in particular on the word holon, “all,” in the parable of the Leaven (“till it was all leavened”). The chapter argues that the parable conveys, in a somewhat veiled form, a hope, if not a promise, of universal salvation, and thus is not compatible with an idea of an everlasting objective “hell.” It is argued that part of the intended message can be formulated, in universal concepts, as follows:God wants all people to live with Godmany people think: this cannot happenI say: it can happen, God wants it to happenThe chapter discusses the meaning of the images of hiddenness, transformation, smallness, and the promise of the final “victory of God.”Less
Explicates the message of another pair of parables, focusing in particular on the word holon, “all,” in the parable of the Leaven (“till it was all leavened”). The chapter argues that the parable conveys, in a somewhat veiled form, a hope, if not a promise, of universal salvation, and thus is not compatible with an idea of an everlasting objective “hell.” It is argued that part of the intended message can be formulated, in universal concepts, as follows:
God wants all people to live with God
many people think: this cannot happen
I say: it can happen, God wants it to happen
The chapter discusses the meaning of the images of hiddenness, transformation, smallness, and the promise of the final “victory of God.”
Anna Wierzbicka
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195137330
- eISBN:
- 9780199867905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195137337.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter, too, is devoted to two twin parables with an identical message, and it argues that the image of a God, searching tirelessly for every lost “sheep” or “coin” (that is, every individual, ...
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This chapter, too, is devoted to two twin parables with an identical message, and it argues that the image of a God, searching tirelessly for every lost “sheep” or “coin” (that is, every individual, every lost human being), suggests a hope of universal salvation and is incompatible with the traditional notion of an eternal “hell.” The explication of the two parables’ message includes components like the following ones:God wants to do good things for all peopleGod wants all people to live with Godwhen a person doesn’t want to live with GodGod feels something bad because of thisGod does many things because of thisif afterwards this person wants to live with GodGod feels something very good because of thisLess
This chapter, too, is devoted to two twin parables with an identical message, and it argues that the image of a God, searching tirelessly for every lost “sheep” or “coin” (that is, every individual, every lost human being), suggests a hope of universal salvation and is incompatible with the traditional notion of an eternal “hell.” The explication of the two parables’ message includes components like the following ones:
God wants to do good things for all people
God wants all people to live with God
when a person doesn’t want to live with God
God feels something bad because of this
God does many things because of this
if afterwards this person wants to live with God
God feels something very good because of this
