Hellperspectives

All images in this slideshow have been pulled from the collection of 101

watercolors executed by Salvador Dalí between 1951-60 as studies for the wood carvings later used for an

illustrated edition of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy

C. S. Lewis’ rejection of universalism

C. S. Lewis

“[I]t has been admitted throughout that man has free will and that all gifts to him

are therefore two-edged. From these premises it follows directly that the Divine

labour to redeem the world cannot be certain of succeeding as regards every

individual soul. Some will not be redeemed” (Problem 119).

C. S. Lewis

“If the happiness of creature lies in self-surrender, no one can make that surrender but himself (though many can help him to

make it) and he may refuse” (120).

C. S. Lewis responds to those who use the doctrine of Hell to attack

Christianity as barbarous and God, if He exists, as not wholly good

(Problem 120).

C. S. Lewis

“And here is the real problem: so much mercy, yet still there is Hell” (Problem 121).

Hell: Not a Tolerable, but a Moral Doctrine . . .

Point #1: The Unrepentant Sinner Must, Logically, Be Punished

reason—not a thirst for revenge—tells us that unremitting, unrepentant sin demands justice, having refused mercy (121-24).

The demand that God should forgive such a man while he remains what he is, is based on a confusion between condoning and forgiving. To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good . . .” (124, emphasis added).

C. S. Lewis

“forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness (Problem 124,

emphasis added).

I John, chp. 1: 5-7

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

I John, chp. 1: 8-10

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

C. S. Lewis

“But, of course, though our Lord often speaks of Hell as a sentence inflicted by tribunal, He also says elsewhere that the judgement consists in the very fact that man prefer darkness to light,

and that not He, but His ‘word’, judges men. We are therefore at liberty—since the two

conceptions, in the long run, mean the same thing—to think of this bad man’s perdition not as a sentence imposed on him but as the mere

fact of being what he is” (Problem 124).

Hell as imposed judgement2 Thessalonians 1:9 / They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

Matthew 10:28 / Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.

Hell as self-created judgment

John 3:18-19 / 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Point #2: Eternity As a Plane or Solid

does transitory, limited sin deserve eternal, unlimited punishment (125)?

try conceiving of time as a line and, accordingly, eternity as not a line but a plane or solid (125).

“Thus the whole reality of a human being would be represented by a solid figure” (125).

C. S. Lewis

“That solid would be mainly the work of God, acting through grace and

nature, but human free will would have contributed the base-line which we call earthly life: and if you draw your base-

line askew, the whole solid will be in the wrong place” (Problem 125).

C. S. Lewis

“A simpler form of the same objection consists in saying that death ought not

to be final, that there ought to be a second chance. I believe that if a million

chances were likely to do good, they would be given. But . . . Finality must

come some time . . . (Problem 126).

C. S. Lewis

“A third objection turns on the frightful intensity of the pains of Hell as suggested

by medieval art and, indeed, by certain passages in Scripture. [Friedrich] von

Hügel here warns us not to confuse the doctrine with the imagery by which it may

be conveyed” (Problem 126).

Point #3: Becoming a Complete Being or an Ex-Being

a complete man: “To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth . . . to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God” (127-28).

an ex-man: is “banished from humanity . . . would presumably mean to consist of a will utterly centered in its self and passions utterly uncontrolled by the will” (128, emphasis added).

C. S. Lewis

“And it must be admitted that as, in these last chapters, we think of eternity, the categories of pain and pleasure, which

have engaged us so long, begin to recede, as vaster good and evil loom in

sight” (Problem 128).

Point #4: Hell as in no sense parallel to Heaven

to the notion that a kind person could not be happy knowing others are in Hell, Lewis points out that the Bible usually emphasizes the notion of finality, not duration (129). [The parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus is one exception to this: Luke 16:19-31]

“That the lost soul is eternally fixed in its diabolical attitude we cannot doubt: but whether this eternal fixity implies endless duration . . . we cannot say” (129).

C. S. Lewis

“[H]ell was not made for men. It is in no sense parallel to heaven: it is ‘the darkness outside’, the outer rim where being fades

away into nonentity” (Problem 129).

Point #5: God allows Himself to Be Defeated in What He Desires for All

free will must allow for the possibility of sin and rebellion—must allow for the possibility of God’s desires not be fully realized for all humanity (129-30).

“I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside” (130).

A Pair of Vital Paradoxes

the ex-humans: “They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved” (130).

the redeemed, completely human: “the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free” (130).

Biblical Metaphors, Images, Parables, & Paradoxes

C. S. Lewis

“The Dominical [Christ’s] utterances about Hell, like all Dominical sayings,

are addressed to the conscience and the will, not to our intellectual curiosity” (Problem 120).