A Theodicy of Hell

Hi,

It's been a long hiatus. I spent several years reading very little philosophy. I've been reading some books lately and wanted to get back into this.

I recently read Four Views on Hell and was a great dialogue between four talented authors. It represented the Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT) view, annihilationist view, universalist view, and a view that included purgatory. All of the essays helped me to better understand their positions and appreciate them more.

In reading this book, I remembered a very good and thorough book on the topic that I read several years ago A Theodicy of Hell. (Don't ask me why the book is so expensive! I got it on sale for $22 in 2008)

Charles Seymour covers every major argument against the existence of hell. His goal is to provide a 'theodicy' of hell. In other words, a plausible explanation for why some may end up in hell for eternity.

In the introduction (p.12), he has main assumptions that he assumes throughout the book. They are libertarian free will and God having 'middle knowledge' of future actions of humans. I personally do not believe in either of these positions but for this series, I don't plan on questioning them too much since they can be pretty common views among Christians.

He defends what he calls the 'freedom view' of hell. Basically, those that go to hell end up there due to unrepentant sinning. Once in hell, they have the freedom to serve out their punishment for their wrongdoing and potentially crossover into heaven. Those that choose to stay in hell and keep sinning may end up suffering eternally. In this situation, those in hell still have the possibility of leaving if they repent so may seem fairer than other versions of hell. However, this view of hell is not perfect either and still has some issues.

I plan on going through the book's various sections and summarizing the arguments he makes and making my own comments. I will skip chapters 1-2 as 1 provides a short introduction and 2 provides a history of the belief of hell. I'm more concerned with justification so I'll start with Ch. 3.

Also, I will note that generally, he does not examine biblical texts until the end and the book is primarily philosophical, not biblical. I'll mainly focus on philosophical arguments as well.

A Theodicy of Hell

Chapter 3: The Argument from Justice

• Sections I-II

Chapter 4: Arguments from Divine Love
Chapter 5: Arguments from Human Choice
Chapter 6: The Freedom View Compared with Rival Versions
Chapter 7: Theodicy and Theology