Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T09:22:02.373Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Considering escaping hell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2022

Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Classics, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
*
Author for correspondence: Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani, email: eiani@ug.edu.gh

Abstract

Adams argues that the traditional doctrine of eternal hellish experience stretches the Problem of Evil beyond any reasonable solution, as hell is stubbornly incompatible with God's omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness. Buckareff and Plug argue that people could leave hell. Matheson responds that if people could leave hell, people could leave heaven. But Matheson provides reasons to think that this is not possible. Luck attempts to refute Matheson's argument. I show that Luck's attempt contains analogies that lack features that crucially depict the asymmetrical relationship between heaven and hell. I advance some other analogies that I think contain such features.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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

Adams, M (1975) Hell and the God of justice. Religious Studies 11, 433447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, M (1993) The problem of hell: a problem of evil for Christians. In Stump, E (ed.), Reasoned Faith: Essays in Philosophical Theology in Honor of Norman Kretzmann. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 301327.Google Scholar
Buckareff, A and Plug, A (2005) Escaping hell: divine motivation and the problem of hell. Religious Studies 41, 3954.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudge, EW (1994) The Fire That Consumes: The Biblical Case for Conditional Immortality, rev. edn. Carlisle: Paternoster Press.Google Scholar
Henley and Partners (2021) The Henley passport index: q3 2021 global ranking. Available at https://www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index/ranking (accessed 25 November 2021).Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J (1993) The Problem of Hell. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Luck, M (2016) Escaping heaven and hell. Religious Studies 52, 395406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matheson, B (2014) Escaping heaven. International Journal of Philosophy of Religion 75, 197–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nita, S, Pecoud, A, Lombaerde, PD, Neyts, K and Gartland, J (eds). (2017) Migration, Free Movement and Regional Integration. Bruges: UNESCO Publishing.Google Scholar
Pinnock, C (1992) The conditional view. In Crockett, W (ed.), Four Views on Hell. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, pp. 135166.Google Scholar
Swinburne, R (1989) Responsibility and Atonement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talbott, T (1990) The doctrine of everlasting punishment. Faith and Philosophy 7, 1942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talbott, T (1992) The New Testament and universal reconciliation. Christian Scholar's Review 21, 376394.Google Scholar
Talbott, T (1997) The love of God and the heresy of exclusivism. Christian Scholar's Review 27, 99112.Google Scholar
Wenham, JW (1992) The case for conditional immortality. In Cameron, N (ed.), Universalism and the Doctrine of Hell. Carlisle: Paternoster Press, pp. 161191.Google Scholar