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Heaven and Hell - Pascha Cycle - Love and Judgement

Please make sure that you have read the main Heaven and Hell page first.

Setting the Scene

God is often portrayed in non-Orthodox theology as constrained by His own nature to act or preordain things that His Love would never allow by its own; for example, preordained eternal damnation.   In other words, "rewards and punishments" conceptions of divine justice often seem to limit the power of love rather than give due wait to the divine compassion and transformative power of Christ's passion.  The whole topography of hell in the west is drawn by this dilemma. Hell exists in "eastern" Christian thought of course, not as a divine necessity, but rather as a self imposed consequence of a rebellious will.  God's will is that ALL should be saved but this divine will is not inexorable as humans still have the will to resist - and for this reason - hell exists.  Whether or not hell is finally empty is another question however and we shall address this question in the unit on "Universalism."

C.S. Lewis, the famous Protestant Christian author wrote an allegory entitled: "The Great Divorce."  In it he describes souls who do or not respond to God's love.  The souls who do respond to the divine love experience this as bliss, heaven.  Those who for one reason or another turn their hearts away from God's love experience that same love as unbearable torture.  In both cases it is God's love and only God's love that is operative.  His wrath is not the result of an unbending logic of divine condemnation but rather how his love is experienced by the loveless.  This is the tragedy of hell and it is the tragedy (and the glory) of our human freedom.  Lewis wrote of these things in a most Orthodox manner in this book although his allegory also included purgatorial references and allusions to extinction as the consequence of damnation which cannot be reconciled with Orthodox Christianity, (to be fair to him though, this was an inexact allegory, a work of speculative fiction).

A detailed study of the Fathers as they handle Scripture on these issues describes the same scenario.  Heaven is being with and in God, theosis, divinisation.  Hell is separation from God, a self inflicted suffering of cutting oneself off from the Source of life and love itself.  It is our grace-transformed active choosing of God as Life and Love in our struggle against the disordered passions of a death-corrupted humanity that drives us toward heaven.  Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ has made this life journey possible by his Incarnation, life, death and resurrection.  It is our responsibility to lay hold of that salvation through repentance and dedication.  A Christian does not fear God's judgement but rather welcomes it as the triumphant consummation of a victorious love.  We weep for those who turn away from that love but we do not grieve inordinately.  Choices have to be made and there is only one choice that leads to life ... God and all must make that choice if they wish for life.

Resources

There are two "must read" articles:-

The River of Fire by Alexander Kalomiros - this famous and "must read" article clearly explains the difference between Orthodox and Catholic / Protestant understandings of salvation and in relation to questions about heaven and hell.

Heaven and Hell in the After Life according to the Bible by Peter Chopelas ... similar in scope to "The River of Fire" but less polemical in its view of the Christian west.

Practical

Compare and contrast human judgement (as exemplified in our judicial and penal systems for example) and divine judgement.  How ought the later to inform and influence the former.  How is that worked out in our personal lives?  Are we prone to judgementalism?

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