Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T03:34:46.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Eliminating the problem of hell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2018

JAMES P. STERBA
JAMES P. STERBA*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana46556, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

According to Marilyn Adams, hell poses the principal problem of evil for Christians. In this article, I show that the problem of hell can be eliminated, or solved, but not by any of four favoured theistic solutions (i.e. traditional, escapist, annihilationist and universalist) that have been provided. Rather, I argue that there is another theistic solution to the problem of hell, a morally realistic solution, which, by drawing on ethical theory, can be shown to be morally preferable to these other solutions.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 181 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anselm, (2007) ‘Cur Deus Homo’, in Anselm, Basic Writings, Williams, T. (ed.) (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing), 237–326.Google Scholar
Barry, W. (2008) A Friendship Like No Other: Experiencing God's Amazing Embrace (Chicago: Loyola University Press).Google Scholar
De La Puente, L. (1951) God's Friendship, Thrill, J. (tr.) (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co.).Google Scholar
Feinberg, J. (1987–1990) The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, I–IV (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Feinberg, J. (1989) Harm to Self (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Kronen, J. & Reitan, E. (2011) God's Final Victory (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing).Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. (1993) The Problem of Hell (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Le Monde, C. (1960) Friendship with God (Techny IL: Divine Word Publications).Google Scholar
Lepp, I. (1964) The Ways of Friendship (New York: Macmillan Company).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1946) The Great Divorce (London: C. S. Lewis Pte Ltd.).Google Scholar
Stump, E. (1986) ‘Dante's hell, Aquinas's moral theory, and the love of god’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 16, 181–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talbott, T. (1999) The Inescapable Love of God (Parklane FL: Universal Publishers).Google Scholar
Walvoord, J. (1996) Four Views of Hell (Grand Rapids IL: Zondervan).Google Scholar
Wiley, T. (2002) Original Sin (Mahwah NJ: The Paulist Press).Google Scholar