Hell

Este artigo pretende analisar um breve episódio do romance Grande Sertão: Veredas de João Guimarães Rosa. Trata-se do episódio da estada no sítio da Guararavacã do Guaicuí, lugar aprazível e bonito, que se contrapõe aos demais lugares do Sertão rosiano, ásperos e inóspitos. A permanência do protagonista Riobaldo e dos outros jagunços neste lugar, que toma a conformação de um verdadeiro Paraíso Terrestre, ganha um valor espiritual e metafísico que remete para a tradição mítica da Idade de Ouro e literária do locus amoenus.

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This article analyzes a brief episode in the novel Grande sertão: veredas by João Guimarães Rosa. It is the episode of the stay in the site of the Guararavacã do Guaicuí, a beautiful and pleasant place, which is opposed to all the other harsh and inhospitable places in the novel. The permanence of the protagonist Riobaldo and his fellows in this place, which takes the conformation of a true Paradise on Earth, acquires a spiritual and metaphysical value, that goes back to the mythical tradition of the Golden Age and the literary one of the locus amoenus.

The last fifty years have probably been the most creative decades of all human history and the dominant note in this creation is to rethink Satan, the Devil, evil and Hell in such a way that it is no longer negative or in any way situated down, under, etc as a metaphor of a degraded value. Verticality is more and more thought as a movement upward and not a movement downward, an ascent and not a descent. It is this side of literature that is missing in this book that only speaks of one type of contemporary literature.

« Hell, in our time, is much more than a fable. » (p. 224)

But what can Hell be in literature if not a fable and a metaphor, at least in the literature that aims at imagining the future, a future, any future even purely imaginative, a future we may dream to come back to from time to time?

Fıtratında sonsuzluk düşüncesi olan insanoğlunu ebedilik arzusu epeyce meşgul etmiş ve bu alanda araştırma yapmaya sevk etmiştir. Nitekim cennet ile cehennemin kıyamet sonrası var olacağı hususunda problem yokken; şu anda mevcut olup olmadığı, Hz. Âdem'in konulduğu cennetinin ebediyet cenneti mi yoksa yeryüzünde bir bahçe mi olduğu hususlarına cevaplar aranmıştır. Bununla birlikte cennet ile cehennemin ebedi mi yoksa fani mi olduğu konusu sürekli tartışılmış ve ortaya farklı yorumlar çıkmıştır. Biz de tezimizde bu soruların doğru cevaplarını bulmaya gayret ettik. Çalışmamız giriş ve iki bölümden oluşmaktadır. Giriş kısmında ebedilik anlamı taşıyan, ebediliği çağrıştıran ve birlikte kullanıldıklarında da sonsuzluk vurgusu yapan kelimelerin dilbilimsel incelemesini yaptık. Birinci bölümde, Hz. Âdem'in yaratılıp konulduğu, sonra da çıkarıldığı cennetin ebediyet cenneti olup olmadığı hususunu ve cennet ile cehennemin şu anda yaratılmış olup olmadığı konusunu inceledik. Asıl konumuz olan cennet ile cehennemin ebediliğine ayırdığımız ikinci bölümde ise cennet ile cehennemin sonsuzluğu hakkındaki görüşlere yer verip, delilleri sıraladık ve son olarak da konu ile ilgili delilleri değerlendirmeye gayret ettik. Neticede Hz. Âdem'in konulduğu cennet ebediyet cennetidir. Cennet de cehennem de yaratılmıştır ve içindekilerle birlikte ebedidir, sonsuza dek var olacaklardır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Hz. Adem, Cennet, Cehennem, Ebediyet, Fanilik.
The eternal desire has made quite busy the human being that has eternity idea in his nature and has led to research in this area. Indeed, There is no problem on the issue that the hell and the heaven will be after the Doomsday. But the replies have been searched whether if the heaven that Prophet Adam was placed has been an eternity heaven or a garden on earth. However, it has been constantly argued whether if the heaven and the hell are forever or mortal thus different comments have came out. In our thesis, we have endeavored to find the correct answers of the questions.Our work consists of introduction and two sections. In the introduction, The linguistic analysis was done of the words which mean and remind the eternity and make the stress of eternity when used together. In the first section, it was diagnosed the heaven whether if the heaven was eternity heaven or not that Prophet Adam was created, placed and then was taken out. We also have examined the heaven and the hell have been created now or not. In the second section, which is separated for our actual topic, we have given place the opinions about the eternity of the hell and the heaven, have sorted the evidences and finally we have endeavored to evaluate the evidences.Eventually, the Heaven where Prophet Adam was placed is an eternity heaven. Both the Heaven and The Hell have been created and both of them are forever with theirs in them. They will be forever.
Key Words: Prophet Adam, Heaven, Hell, Eternity,Transiency.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
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(from the Introduction)
Intending only to research medieval conceptions of hell, author Alan Bernstein wanted to investigate postmortem retribution in the ancient world for historical context. This investigation turned into an entire book of its own. In The Formation of Hell, Bernstein seeks to explain how the idea of hell achieved a prominent place in people’s minds. He explicitly states that he intends to accomplish this without any prior concern for whether hell actually exists or any preceding judgement as to the nature or value of hell.  In the end, Bernstein provides a superb example of historical investigation and rigorous scholarship. Though there are certain theological and metaphysical implications omitted from the book, the author successfully demonstrates that the notion of hell originally arose late in Judaism out of a need to explain the injustices in the world and became a rhetorical device designed to elicit conformity to religious and cultural mores.

It is the conviction of the writer of this paper that the evidence presented from both the New Testament and its conservative scholar’s exhibits that the doctrine of the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked held by orthodox Christians for over 2000 years is the only option for a conservative Bible-believing Christian.  Some may mock at the idea that humans often need contrasts to learn and to be grateful for the blessing they have received.  Nevertheless, often it is only when one sees that someone else did not receive a blessing which he has received is he able to view things from a perspective of thankfulness. 
When Scripture has its proper place as the final authority for faith and practice, many issues can be resolved.  Likewise, how the Holy Spirit assisted orthodox exegetes to interpret texts over the last 2,000 years can also assist Bible students in not wandering into the error of many American based cults.

The problem of hell is a specific form of the problem of evil that can be expressed in terms of a set of putatively incompatible statements: 
1. An omnipotent God could create a world in which all moral agents freely choose life with God. 
2. An omnibenevolent God would not create a world with the foreknowledge that some (perhaps a significant proportion) of God’s creatures would end up in hell.
3. An omniscient God would know which people will end up in hell.
4. Some people will end up forever in hell. 
Since the late twentieth century, a number of British and North American philosophical theologians, inspired by C.S. Lewis, have developed a new approach to answering the problem of hell. Very little work has been done to systematize this category of perspectives on the duration, quality, purpose and finality of hell. Indeed, there is no consensus among scholars as to what such an approach should be called. In this work, however, I call this perspective issuantism.
Starting from the works of a wide range of issuantist scholars, I distill what I believe to be the essence of issuantist perspectives on hell: hell is a state that does not result in universal salvation and is characterized by the insistance that both heaven and hell must issue from the love of God, an affirmation of libertarian human freedom and a rejection of retributive interpretations of hell. These sine qua non characteristics form what I have labeled basic issuantism. I proceed to show that basic issuantism by itself does not provide an adequate answer to the problem of hell. The issuantist scholars themselves, however, recognize this weakness and add a wide range of possible supplements to their basic issuantism. Some of these supplemented versions of issuantism succeed in presenting reasonable answers to the problem of hell. 
One of the key reasons for the development of issuantist views of hell is a perceived failure on the part of conditionalists, universalists and defenders of hell as eternal conscious torment to give adequate answers to the problem of hell. It is my conclusion, however, that with the addition of some of the same supplements, versions of conditionalism and hell as eternal conscious torment can be advanced that succeed just as well in presenting answers to the problem of hell as those advanced by issuantists, thus rendering some of the issuantist critique of non-issuantist perspectives on hell unfounded.

Hell is being written out of theology and banned from serious conversation; for most scholars and modern- minded people it has more or less become a theoretical issue. Yet it remains alive and burning in the Western mind – there has been a surge in the amount of popular literature written on the subject from the 1990’s onwards. Why the sudden interest? Is there a pattern or social trend that could begin to explain the phenomenon? Part of the responsible way of dealing with the history of a concept such as hell is to point towards the social and political reasons for the emergence and need for certain concepts in particular contexts and circumstances, as they are all utilitarian concepts which are employed and abandoned as needs change and sentiments shift. This article will investigate the rise of the concept of hell by investigating the ancient sources in which it first appeared, in order to establish what factors made the concept popular then and now. In doing so, a continuum will be identified between the first origin of these ideas and their present popularity.

ARTICLE I. The importance of salvation
§ 1 – Salvation is a sublime and unique matter
§ 2 – One must work for his salvation
§ 3 – Religious cannot work for their salvation except by observing their Rule  exactly

ARTICLE II. The need for penance
§ 1 – Penance is necessary for everyone
§ 2 – Penance must be severe and proportionate to sin
§ 3 – The penance of religious consists in the exact observance of their Rule

ARTICLE III. The horror for sin
§ 1 – The malice of mortal sin
§ 2 – The malice of venial sin
§ 3 – The horror of sin in the religious measures his observance of the Rule

ARTICLE IV. Preparation for death
§ 1 – How we should think about death
§ 2 – How we should prepare for death
§ 3 – Genuine preparation for death for a religious is the faithful observance of his Rule 89

ARTICLE V. Fear of the judgments of God
§ 1 – The terrible judgments of God
§ 2 – The severity of particular judgment
§ 3 – Religious cannot expect a favorable judgment unless they have observed their Constitutions exactly

ARTICLE VI. The pains of Hell
§ 1 – The pains of Hell are incomprehensible and eternal
§ 2 – The pains of Hell are terrible in number and duration
§ 3 – Religious who strictly keep their Constitutions will avoid the pains of Hell

ARTICLE VII. The delights of Paradise
§ 1 – The delights of Paradise are indescribable
§ 2 – The delights of Paradise are universal and eternal
§ 3 – By faithfully observing their Rule, religious will merit
the delights of Paradise

Denna 48-sidiga bok är en introduktion till de vanligaste föreställningar om helvetet och de eviga straffen inom kristen teologi. Exegetiska och religionsfilosofiska skäl för - och invändningar mot - universalism, konditionalism (annihilationism), traditionalism (oändligt straff i medvetet tillstånd) och helvetet som naturlig följd av människors fria val.

Din psikolojisi bilim dalının incelediği önemli konularından birisi de dini tasavvurlardır. Çeşitli dini tasavvurlar içerisinde, cennet ve cehennem tasavvurları da bu alanda önemli bir yer teşkil etmektedir. Cennet ve cehennem tasavvurları, zihinsel gelişim, başta
aile olmak üzere çeşitli sosyal çevre faktörleri ve bağlı olunan dinin inanç esasları tarafından etkilenebilmektedir. Bununla birlikte çocukların cennet ve cehennem tasavvurları,
yetişkin kişilerin bu konudaki tasavvurlarından belirli farklılıklar göstermektedir. Bu
araştırmada gerek somut gerekse soyut düzeyde cennet ve cehennem tasavvurlarını belirleyebilmek için uygun bir örnek/em oluşturan ilköğretim okulu öğrencilerinin cennet ve
cehennem tasavvurları bu konudaki ifadelerinden hareketle tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır.

Imaginations of Heaven and Hell in Children (Sample of Primary School Students)
Among one of the important matters on which Psychology of Religion studies is religious imaginations. Among them, the imaginations of heaven and hell also have an important place in this field. The imaginations of he av en and hel! and mental development may be influenced by various social environmental factors, bejare all by family, and religious beliefs. However, children's imaginations of heaven and hell show certain differences from adult's imaginations in this matter. In this study, the imaginations of heaven and hell of primary school students who constitute suitable samples to determine their imaginations of heaven and hell in both concrete and abstract levels have been tried to identify based on their expressions in this matter.

Much of the history of scholarship on " hell " has been devoted to tracing genetic relationships between older texts and more recent ones, typically based upon generic elements or the specific features of hell's landscape. This paper suggests a new direction for classics and New Testament study, focusing instead on the rhetorical function of hell in antiquity. This paper argues that the ancient conventions of descriptive rhetoric were at work in the depictions of Hell that we find in the Jewish and early Christian apocalypses. It begins with a definition of these rhetorical devices by examining the Progymnasmata as well as Quintillian's work on rhetoric and discusses the role of the rhetoric of description in the overall Greek and Roman programs of paideia. Next, this paper demonstrates that these rhetorical devices were at work in various ancient depictions of Hades (with examples chosen from Greek and Latin authors such as Homer, Plato, Virgil, Lucian and Plutarch). Finally, this paper shows that this rhetorical technique was also at work in the early Christian apocalypses and concludes that apocalyptic authors, like the Greeks and Romans before them, used these rhetorical techniques to " emotionally move " their audiences toward " right behavior. "

Abstract: This problem of hell is a specific form of the problem of evil. The possibility that perhaps a great number of people will end up in an eternal hell is a problem for the Christian who also confesses faith in an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God. In this paper, I shall introduce issuantist views of hell and show that the basic formulations of this perspective do not provide an adequate answer to the problem of hell. Issuantist scholars themselves, however, recognize this weakness and add a wide range of possible supplements to their basic perspective. Some of these supplemented versions succeed in presenting reasonable answers to the problem of hell. One of the key reasons for the shift in interpretations of hell is a perceived failure on the part of other interpretations of hell to give adequate answers to the problem of hell. It is my conclusion, however, that with the addition of some of the same supplements, versions of annihilationism/ conditionalism and h...

Inhalt:. Einführung: Eine kurze Geschichte des Jenseits; (I) Antike: Vom innerweltlichen zum außerweltlichen Jenseits; (II) Antikes Judentum und frühen Christentum: Himmel, Hölle und Gericht, (III) Islam: Der eine Gott und die vielen Himmel; (IV) Dsas Christentum und die Revolutionen des Weltbilds; (V) Abschied vom Jenseits?

The Omni-perfect God of the Bible created the best of all Worlds when He endowed human agents with the power to demonstrate their love for Him decisively. The goal of this theodicy is to define what may be the only way people can do this decisively, and prove themselves worthy of having a permanent loving relationship with God in His presence. And people prove their love for God by laying down their life for Him. And they lay down their life for Him by asking Him to remove their power to disobey Him.

The doctrines of hell and the existence of God seem to pose a formidable paradox for both Christianity and Islam. The paradox can be stated as follows: Given that God is perfect in every sense, how can he allow any of his creatures to suffer eternal perdition? In this paper, I undertake a critical examination of the arguments for and against the doctrine of hell and conclude that on balance, arguments against the existence of hell heavily outweigh those for its existence. This calls for a radical revision of the traditional doctrine of hell. I contend that what is needed is a gentler and more sinner-friendly theology of hell that recognizes God’s mercy and infinite patience. Nevertheless, belief in hell can serve the social function of deterring potential sinners from sinning.

The problem of hell is a specific form of the problem of evil. The possibility that perhaps a great number of people will end up in an eternal hell is a problem for the Christian who also confesses faith in an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God. In this paper, I shall introduce issuantist views of hell and show that the basic formulations of this perspective do not provide an adequate answer to the problem of hell. Issuantist scholars themselves, however, recognize this weakness and add a wide range of possible supplements to their basic perspective. Some of these supplemented versions succeed in presenting reasonable answers to the problem of hell. One of the key reasons for the shift in interpretations of hell is a perceived failure on the part of other interpretations of hell to give adequate answers to the problem of hell. It is my conclusion, however, that with the addition of some of the same supplements, versions of annihilationism/ conditionalism and hell as eternal conscious torment can be advanced that succeed just as well in presenting answers to the problem of hell as those advanced by issuantist scholars, thus rendering some of their critique of retributive perspectives on hell unfounded.

Explores a hermeneutical rule used by proponents of annihilationism, scrutinizing it in light of the Scriptures' hermeneutical rules regarding the use of the Old Testament in light of the person and work of Christ. It is argued that the New Testament necessitates typological exegesis of the Old Testament as it applies to person and work of Christ, the church and her relationship to Christ and the world. and by implication the fate of the reprobate. It is shown that Old Testament images concerning the final end of the wicked must, of a necessity, be interpreted typologically given the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and his fulfillment of the Old Testament.

di San Vincenzo a Galliano (1007) sul registro pittorico della parete nord Paolo Piva, San Pietro al Monte di Civate: una lettura iconografica in chiave conte-87 stuale Como (XIII secolo) Fabio Scirea, L'aldilà prima della fine dei tempi. Proposte iconografiche per la contro-185 facciata di San Michele al Pozzo Bianco a Bergamo Elena Alfani, Itinerari artistici tra Lombardia, Catalogna e Oriente 9 Elena Lampugnani, La commendatio animae di Ariberto nelle pitture absidali 31 Vincenzo Cavallaro, L'Esodo di San Calocero a Civate: osservazioni preliminari 55 Illustrazioni 97 naria Bruno, Le pitture murali di San Salvatore a Barzanò: iconografia, cronologia 153 e contesto (XII secolo) Barbara Rossini, Pittura, reliquie, culto dei santi in San Giorgio di Borgo Vico a 165 5 Fabio Scirea L'ALDILÀ PRIMA DELLA FINE DEI TEMPI. PROPOSTE ICONOGRAFICHE PER LA CONTROFACCIATA DI SAN MICHELE AL POZZO BIANCO A BERGAMO

According to Leibniz, there is no death in the sense that the human being or animal is destroyed completely. This is due to his metaphysical pluralism which would suffer if the number of substances decreased. While animals transform into other animals after “death”, human beings are rewarded or punished of their behavior in this life. This paper presents a comprehensive account of how Leibniz thought the “death” to take place and discusses his often unclear views on the life after death. I will also present a new, naturalistic reading of Leibniz’s views on afterlife.

Studying theology at Regent College (1974 – 1976; 1981) on the University of British Columbia (Vancouver Canada) campus strongly urged that we students make it a life work to apply theology to our vocation. I took that urging seriously, and indeed have tried to apply it ever since. In that my entire career in criminal justice actually began while a student at Regent, it was natural to begin the process right away.

In turning one’s attention to issues of crime and punishment, it is inevitable to come up rather immediately against the dominant Western view of Divine Punishment: a literal Hell of eternal conscious torment. All my instincts, by the time of completing an initial two years of study at the seminary, rebelled against the kind of “god” who, à la Four Spiritual Laws, “loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”, but if one does not buy in. “god hates you, and has a horrible plan for your afterlife!” And the further along the trajectory of understanding God’s justice as invariably restorative, the more impossible it became to accept the traditional dominant Western theological view of hell – or of war or punishment/prisons.

As it turns out, such profoundly troubling misgivings put me in very good company. Kevin Miller, writer, film maker – and so talented at so many things – produced a documentary in 2012 entitled “Hellbound?” (2012). His follow-up was a book he edited entitled “Hellrazed?” (2017). Several of us put in our two cents worth, all challenging a view of god about which a yesteryear newspaper columnist, Matt Miller, did an ironic riff on Evangelicals’ all-time favourite verse, John 3:16:
For God so loved the world that he temporarily died to save it from himself. But none of that really matters because most people will be tortured for eternity anyways.

As you will see further on, I also raise questions about an arcane footnote/exception-clause theology of John 3:16 – and more generally of “Evangelicals” by extension.

The first part of the chapter below was originally a movie review; the second part a book review. I eventually joined the two into what you may now read. The chapter that follows is explicit about a trilogy of linked justice issues – with “just deserts” rounding out that trilogy.

In this article I propose identifying the figure of the Tree‐Man, who holds a leading role in the Gar‐den of Earthly Delights, with Eternal Death, which is where the sins of mankind (widely represented in this infernal scene) lead. However, although some of the misdemeanours in the scene fit into the model of the seven capital sins, most of them actually depict wrongdoings that are harmful to society: corrupt clergymen, profane music, gambling and drinking; all of which are an attack upon ruling social order. The emergence of the modern concept of Hell is reflected in the secondary role given to the figure of Lucifer, depicted in a corner of his kingdom, whereas eternal death – the ultimate destination of sinful mankind, holds a predominant role.

This paper argues that few words have caused so many misunderstandings and have done so much harm as the English word “hell”. Jesus’ teaching was focussed on “the kingdom of God” — a phrase which occurs in the New Testament 120 time (with the variant “the kingdom of heaven”). The word “Gehenna” — a symbol of the possibility of excluding oneself from that kingdom — occurs only 12 times. A word like “hell”, with its current English sense, does not occur in the New Testament at all.
Building on many years of research in cross-cultural semantics and pragmatics, the paper seeks to grasp what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of God” and “Gehenna”. It articulates this by means of very simple words which, as linguistic evidence shows, have counterparts in all languages of the world and which often allow a more fine-grained conceptual analysis than complex or technical concepts of theology.
The use of this approach for re-thinking Christian faith, pioneered in the author’s books What Did Jesus Mean? (OUP 2001) and What Christians Believe: The Story of God and People in Minimal English (OUP 2019) allows her to achieve a clarity and transparency in her presentation of Jesus’ teaching which cannot be attained through more complex and English-specific words typically used in this field (Cf. Durie 2021; Bauerlein 2021).
The paper also builds on the author’s earlier work on “Jewish Cultural Scripts and the Interpretation of the Bible” (2004), which identifies the widespread lack of cross-cultural awareness in modern Anglophone writings on Christianity as a major source of misunderstandings around Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of God.

Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya)

Say: ‘Death, from which you are fleeing, will certainly catch up with you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible and He will inform you about what you did.’ (Surat al-Jumu‘a: 8).

Death may catch up with you at any time. Who knows, perhaps this is the moment. Or, it may be much closer than you have ever expected.

These lines may be the last opportunity, the last reminder, the last warning before death comes upon you. As you proceed with these lines, you can never know that you will still be alive in the next hour. Even if it proves to be so, nothing can guarantee you another hour. Let alone an hour, not even after a single moment, is it certain that you will be still living. There is no guarantee that you will ever finish reading this book. Death will, most likely, come upon you at a time when, only a moment before, you never thought about dying.

You will most certainly die, as will all your loved ones. Before you or after you, they will certainly die. A hundred years from now, there will not be a single soul you are familiar with in this world.

Endless aims pertaining to life occupy man's minds; to finish high school, to enter university, to graduate, to have a respectable occupation, to marry, to bring up children, to lead a peaceful life… These aside, there are thousands of others devised to address one's personal circumstances.

Death is one of the few things in life certain to occur. This is a one hundred percent certainty.

After years of hard work, a student succeeds in entering the university, yet may die on the way to class. Or someone who has recently been hired for a job may lose his life on his first morning commute to his work. A traffic accident may end the lives of a newly married couple on their wedding day. A successful businessman may prefer to fly to save time, and his life may end in an unexpected way.

Recensie Johanna Klein, Jeroen Bosch. Hemel, hel (Uitgeverij Lecturis 2015, 240 pp.) ISBN 9789462261044. Mark Beumer Dit fraai vormgegeven boek beoogt de Tuin der Lusten van Hieronymus Bosch centraal te stellen. De auteur geeft aan dat haar boek is gebaseerd op het boek Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights, geschreven door Reindert Falkenburg. Ik ben geen kunsthistoricus en kan er daarom niets inhoudelijks over zeggen. Ik richt mij vooral op de helderheid van het betoog, met daarbij oog voor de geschiedenis.

The prospect of eternal torment is the ultimate motivation to find God. While the Hebrew Bible is repleat with the visitation of God’s wrath or anger, Yeshua comes to save us from divine wrath. If divine wrath is removed or minimized, the reason for the death of Yeshua is diminished. Current confusion about hell, has reduced hell to a non-entity.

התקציר העברי מופיע בהמשך. R. Moshe Zacuto’s Tofteh Aruch was written with two levels of meaning. On the unambiguous, explicit level is the ultimate fate of the “Everyman” as to the depths of Hell with descriptions of different chambers and specific forms of punishment. On an indirect implicit level, however, Zacuto hints at a number of polemics current in the Jewish world of his time (the 17th century).  One concerned the Sabbatean controversy – was it true faith or idolatry? Another focused on the status of the conversos – to what degree can they be given exemptions in fulfilling commandments when they return to the practice of Judaism?  Both levels of meaning connect around the question of the soul’s fate after death.
This article also explores the question of the time of Zacuto’s writing of Tofteh Aruch. Based on his biography, and If Tofteh Aruch contains a polemic against Sabbateanism, one may assume that it was authored between 1668 and 1673.
"תפתה ערוך" לר' משה זכות פונה אל קוראיו ברבדים שונים של משמעות.  הרובד הגלוי עוסק בגורלו של "כל אדם", ובמסגרתו מתאר זכות את כל מדורי הגיהינום ומרחיב ומספר מי הם היורדים לכל מדור ומהו עונשם.  ברבדים נסתרים של יצירתו מרמז הרמ"ז לפולמוסים שניסרו בחללו של העולם היהודי:  האחד הוא בעניינה של השבתאות – אם אמונת אמת היא או עבודה זרה; והשני הוא בעניין מעמדם של האנוסים – עד כמה אפשר להקל בעול המצוות הנדרשות מהם עם חזרתם ליהדות. שאלת גורלה של הנפש לאחר המוות קושרת בין כל הרבדים הללו. המאמר מוסיף גם דיון בשאלה זמנה של היצירה, והמסקנה היא שאם אמנם קיים בה פולמוס עם השבתאות הרי שעל רקע הביוגרפיה של רמ"ז יש לקבוע את זמן חיבורה בין השנה 1668 לשנת 1673.

The tradition I will be uncovering is one that is best seen when we look at it through two theoretical lenses: 1.) trauma theory including the grotesque quality of trauma, and 2.) Foucault's discussions of parrhesia and counter-conduct. 10 Given the widely divergent understandings of trauma and trauma theory, here it will be helpful to spell out in some detail how I will be relating these terms to the resignatio ad infernum tradition. 9 It is not to my purpose to take sides in the recent heated debates between trauma theorists and those who question its framework altogether, not least because the literature is so vast and complex. Cathy Caruth's work is often cited as the origin of academic trauma theory. See, among others, Cathy Caruth, Unclaimed Experience : Trauma, Narrative, and History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). Caruth's work is heavily indebted to Lacan and psychoanalysic theory in addition to Derridean literary theory. Dominick LaCapra, an historian and a sympathetic critic of Caruth's reliance on Lacan, represents the major historical approach to trauma theory. See

On Eschatological Problematics in the works
of Kyrylo Tranquillon Stavrovetsky
Taras Shmanko
The article presents some aspects of theological thought of Kyrylo
Tranquillon Stavrovetsky that pertain to the final purpose of man and all
the creation. Pivoting on the analysis of all three Stavrovetsky’s books,
the author of this article tried to present the main notions and eschatological
concepts applied by Kyrylo, as well as examples of their use in pastoral practice
of his days. After examining the major eschatological topoi of Kyrylo’s
eschatology, eschatological issues are discussed in the context of the reception
and critique of Kyrylo Stavrovetsky’s works.

Jonathan Edwards provides subsequent generations of theologians and ministers with one of the most influential versions of the traditional account of hell. However, his account of hell has its detractors. Those who oppose Edwards's account argue that it is morally appalling and philosophically problematic. As such, I attempt to defend Edwards's account by addressing one of its most philosophically pressing objections: the issuant account objection. In order to do this, I turn to Edwards's doctrine of the blessed state of the redeemed in heaven. This is a doctrine the resources of which can help provide a redeemed " Edwardsean " account of hell, one that is both traditional and issuant.

Recherches historiques autour de la Bible, de Jésus et des premiers chrétiens (48 articles) - Site historique consacré à Marie, surnommée "la Magdaléenne" (alias Marie de Magdala, alias Marie-Madeleine) (29 articles) - Histoire de l'Enfer (1 article) - Avec liens hypertextes.

Swedish philosopher Ingemar Hedenius famously ridiculed Christians for their belief in eternal punishment. This critique of Christianity has been echoed by new atheists like Richard Dawkins. This chapter seeks to show how faith in a loving, omnipotent God can be reconciled with belief in at least some form of hell.

Medieval testimonies brought back by Christian voyagers into Hell delve into the infernal punishments administered to the souls of the sinners. In this literature, written by monks for monks, the emphasis on sexual deviations is indicative of a constant battle to repress desire, as well as of a need to destroy the object of this desire. The punitive treatment administered to those who violate the rules and allow themselves to be corrupted by lust, elicits a variety of fantasies where torture, cruelty, and lechery are fused together in unbridled poetry. In pursuance of this worship of chastity, bodies, which should be separated and chaste on Earth, are instead mixed together naked and are desecrated in Hell. In condemning eroticism and desire, the monks result in describing a sexuality that is considerably more seditious. This paper analyzes the extent to which this literature allows the study of the attitude monks adopted towards sexual practices.

This is an English translation of the article "Ske min vilja" also posted here on academia.edu. It was first published in the Swedish journal Theofilos nr 1, 2011. It is an analysis and critique of Lewis' creative and original approach to reconciling an eternal hell with the goodness and love of God.