Annihilation, everlasting torment, and divine justice

A major source of disagreement among proponents of the traditionalist and conditionalist views of hell regards the proportionality criterion, according to which the justice of a punishment must match the severity of the offense. Conditionalists often argue that eternal conscious torment is too sever...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Spiegel, James S. 1963- (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2015]
In: International journal of philosophy and theology
Year: 2015, Volume: 76, Issue: 3, Pages: 241-248
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Hell / Damnation / Destruction / Justice of God
IxTheo Classification:NBC Doctrine of God
NBQ Eschatology
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:A major source of disagreement among proponents of the traditionalist and conditionalist views of hell regards the proportionality criterion, according to which the justice of a punishment must match the severity of the offense. Conditionalists often argue that eternal conscious torment is too severe, given that the sins of any human being are finite. Traditionalists, however, typically insist that the perfect moral status of God requires infinite punishment for the damned. The discussion usually proceeds on the assumption that eternal conscious torment is a more extreme punishment than annihilation. Here I challenge this assumption by identifying reasons to believe annihilation is actually a more severe punishment than eternal conscious torment.
ISSN:2169-2327
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal of philosophy and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/21692327.2015.1077469