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The Doctrine of Hell and Moral Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Keith E. Yandell
Keith E. Yandell
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53076
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Extract

The doctrine of hell, stated with a little care, entails that some persons never achieve their greatest good, fail to really flourish and never reach the end for which they were created. If that doctrine is true, and it is tragic that persons never achieve their greatest good, then there are tragic states of affairs whose tragedy is never overcome.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 75 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 For example, see Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; 16:23; II Peter 2:4; Revelation 1:18; 20:13, 14. Cf. John 3:16–18, 36; Romans 1:11–16; 5:9.Google Scholar

2 Aquinas, St Thomas, Compendium of Theology (St Louis: B. Herder Book Company, 1947), tr. Cyril Vollert, S.J., S.T.D., chs. 172–84; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book Three, ch. 25, ‘The Last Resurrection’.Google Scholar

3 Psalm, 139:8.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Matthew, 25:32.Google Scholar

5 Lewis, C. S., The Great Divorce (New York: Macmillan, 1946).Google Scholar

6 That is, one could understand, respectively, Comte's Course of Positive Philosophy (1830–42), Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), and Language, Truth, and Logic (1936), but could make nothing of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (reputedly edited posthumously by Aristotle–s son; Aristotle died in 322 B.C.), Aquinas' Commentary on the Nichomachean Ethics (1263–72) or Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) and Metaphysics of Morals (1797).Google Scholar

7 Smart, J. J. C. and Williams, Bernard, Utilitarianism: For and Against (London: Cambridge University Press, 1973), pp. 92, 93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Lewis, C. S., ed., George MacDonald: An Anthology (New York: Macmillan, 1948), p. 85.Google Scholar

9 Two discussions of hell that relate to the present discussion are Lewis, C. S., The Problem of Pain (London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd, 1940), ch. VIII andGoogle Scholarvon Hugel, Baron Friedrich, Essays and Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd, 1901), ch. 7.Google Scholar