Why I Don't Believe In Hell
There's been a fair amount of noise on some of the theology/religion-related blogs I read about a new book by Rob Bell called Love Wins. Naturally that is the kind of title that shocks and offends a great many of my co-religionists as it is, let alone the fact that the central subject of Bell's book seems to be questioning the idea that those who
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I wasn't aware that this was the doctrine of Hell. Though I assume it's the view he's writing against. It does seem to emerge from a sola fide soteriology where faith = intellectual assent.
Not to get all into it, but basically my understanding of Hell (if I were to try and justify it myself, and not on the basis of its place in the tradition) grows out of an acceptance of the stakes we live with now; not that the punishment for evil gives goodness its, well, goodness, but I find it awfully hard to conceive of a divine justice that doesn't give each act its due. If God acted mercifully toward everyone in every instance (which he certainly could (although what I really mean is, if he somehow acted mercifully and *not* justly, at the same time)), it would definitely alter our working understanding of the nature of good and evil and their effect on God's creation; their effect on our heart or our souls or whatever anyone prefers to call our moral center and character (which God presumably wants to be called good); and our free will. I mean, do people need to be redeemed from themselves, or not? I'm not being rhetorical, since many theologians and just plain regular people don't think we do need to be saved from ourselves, and I don't know what your take on that is, either. Either way, I don't think Hell is a silly little detail that awful people believe in because they've never taken a Hebrew scriptures course or read Origen. But this Rob Bell controversy is only something I've seen patches of on Facebook, from my evangelical friends, so I don't know anything in particular about his arguments.
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