A Report on Hell

I just completed an interview a few minutes ago for a documentary being produced on the recent controversy about views of hell (Hellbound), prompted by Rob Bell’s book Love Wins and the range of reactions to it. The director wasn’t so much interested in my views on hell (thankfully) as on how people form and defend their religious beliefs. He had read Myth of Certainty and asked questions arising from that book (now 25 years old but still scratching some people’s itch).

One question he asked was “Why now? Why does this topic create such passion among believers and nonbelievers in our moment?” Among my many profound and entertaining answers was this one. Christianity is now a minority position in the western world. Many feel the need to defend it against increasingly vocal detractors. The traditional doctrine of hell is one of the aspects of Christianity most commonly objected to by many, including not a few believers. So it is not a dead issue, nor a minor one, even though I, for one, think it at best a third or fourth level issue. It’s nowhere near the core of my faith, not least because I don’t think the afterlife is something that God cares to tell us a lot about.

I did say that the most common traditional view has something to be said for it in this sense. It claims that hell matters. We can argue, if so inclined, about the details of the afterlife (I’m not inclined), but it does have an important relationship to this life, and it is foolish to be dismissive.

I also said that there has been a sort of sea change on hell. When the issue of hell came up in the past, people used to worry about saving themselves from it. Now they often worry about saving God’s image. People want God to be all love, mercy, and fairness. The traditional doctrine of hell violates their own sense of love, mercy, and fairness, and so they feel pressured to explain hell in a way that gets God off the hook. I know there’s a lot more to it, but that’s going on too and it is a significant shift. I tend to think God can handle himself.

It was an interesting afternoon.