The idea of a permanent hell is tolerable only if God is seen as an autocratic and merciless ruler

The Christian death liturgy is centred on prayer for the soul of the deceased to rest in peace after a life of exile in a valley of tears. The Latin phrase “Requiescat in Pace” is found inscribed in the early Catacomb tombs. Lines from a Christian hymn express the common Christian thinking on death: “Think of the peace their suffering done, Think of the glory their sacrifice won.”
To an outsider, it looks as if heaven was created by oppressed and unhappy people who regarded their earthly existence and work as a punishment devoid of happiness, but upon death are promised eternal rest. This alienation is expressed in the African-American spirituals songs of the enslaved black people of the US.
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But immediate eternal peace and happiness is not guaranteed to all – just to the blessed few. The vast majority must face a transitional state, not of peace and happiness, but of purgatorial punishment due to their sinful earthly lives. Again they must await the elusive promise of eternal peace and happiness in heaven. The unrepentant few will face the eternal fires of hell. Dante’s sign over the entrance to hell expresses its finality – “Abandon hope all you who enter”.
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The teaching on Purgatory promulgated in 1274 by the Council of Lyons was held by a unified western church until the Reformation when its contentious existence was rejected by the newly emerging Protestant Christian Churches. Its existence was reiterated as Roman Catholic doctrine by the Council of Trent. The most unattractive element in the Catholic outlook on the future life is the immediate fixity of one’s eternal destiny that is immediately and irrevocably settled at death. The idea of a fixed condition is so unlike any life we know and so contradictory of our aspirations that our imaginations freeze before the eternal tedious sameness of heavenly bliss.
Why cannot change and growth which is such an essential feature of human life not be continued into our next level of existence? As few human beings will have achieved their full spiritual growth on Earth, it seems illogical that there will be no opportunity for their eternal growth in an afterlife. Why should it be extinguished in some purgatorial state? Newman’s dictum applies equally to all existence: “to live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often”. The rich diversification in Dante’s imaginative portrayal of the afterlife also challenges a fixed eternal state.
If we cannot conceive of a finite existence or of human happiness and love except in terms of growth, then why can’t we equally conceive of an infinite future existence based on growth? Few receive the opportunities in their life to fulfil their human potential and needs as outlined in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If our personal potential is not realised on Earth, surely it doesn’t disappear at death but becomes realisable in our next level of existence?
We can think of an afterlife as an unlimited scale of ascent towards God, reaching from the lowest to the highest, within which every spirit would hold the place for which it was fitted, and each could advance as it grew in eternity. This idea would also satisfy our Christian faith in the redeeming mercy of God.
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Some might say that this view contradicts the human sense of justice which demands that the wicked be punished even with eternal punishment while the good are rewarded in heaven. However, no Christian can rejoice in the existence of hell. No matter how evil a life one person lives, there is always a scintilla of goodness that can grow and develop. The idea of a permanent hell is tolerable only if God is seen as an autocratic merciless ruler dealing with his remote subjects; it becomes intolerable when it is the Father dealing with his children.
Jesus in his justice parables subverted the traditional “eye for an eye” justice. The elder brother in the prodigal son parable felt very aggrieved at the welcome his father lavished on his brother who had squandered all his inheritance. The workers in the vineyard who worked all through a hot day felt very aggrieved when their fellow workers who only worked for the last hour received the same financial reward of one denarius as they had received.
Our traditional fixed views on the afterlife need a shake-up with a new emphasis on an existence not based on purgation from sin, but on the possibility of the growth of every soul or spirit into the fullness of eternal happiness – no matter what wrong they committed in a previous earthly existence. Death and a judgmental God no longer need to be feared. Our personal growth and development started on Earth will continue forever in the kingdom of God.
Brendan Butler is a theologian and author of My Story, by Jesus of Nazareth