Stephen Dyer
A few months ago, we had a discussion topic on Death and Rebirth which for some of us seemed to be referring to life after death. And for some of us this stirred a great deal of excitement which was unfilled. This discussion paper grew from that idea.
If you were born a Roman Catholic or became a Roman Catholic or are a member of one the many Christian faiths, the afterlife is of significant importance. If you were “really good (saint-like)”, you entered into Heaven. If you were “bad”, you were sent to Hell. If you were somewhere in between, you went to Purgatory. Some Christian faiths don’t subscribe to Purgatory and see it as a placating idea and believe that there are only two possibilities, and you better not be heading south.
What do you believe at this stage of your spiritual journey of the concept of Heaven and Hell? Do you believe in Purgatory?
For many of us, we have strong beliefs, and in this discussion, we focus on the concept of Heaven and Hell, Purgatory, Limbo. These beliefs come from our authority figures, like our parents, our teachers at school, priests or pastors who gave sermons, who cited certain scriptures from the Bible. As we grew and matured, we processed these spiritual concepts and absorbed them deep into our identity and it was important for our sense of belonging to our “faith”, our society group/ “our Tribe”. And when we felt confident, we taught our perceptions of the spiritual world and about God to those around us, to friends, to family members, to children, to even non-friends.
Where do your beliefs come from? How where you educated about these beliefs? Who were the Authority figures that formed your view or beliefs about the Life after Death?
Throughout most of history, a lot of Christians and many other religions, hold onto a view of God as a supreme being perfectly just and who deals out Rewards and Punishment depending on our behaviour. Reward and Punishment can be dealt out in this life and the next. This concept makes so much sense to our view of the need for Justice and fairness in our society. It is hard to imagine a stable society or world without law and order, rewards and punishments. Over the many centuries humans probably reason that God must operate this way. But there is this problem, in our life experience, in our reading of history, there is this inconsistency of dealing out rewards and punishment. Some people do bad things and get rewarded and some people do good and get punished. Life seems unfair.
What is your view about the concept of God as a God of Reward and Punishment and of Justice?
There is also an alternate view of God, as the God of Unconditional Love/ Infinite Love ever ready to forgive and bring back into communion with Him and the Human Family and all of Creation. Jesus was the prime revelation of this nature of God. So, there are possibly two views of God: One- the God of Justice and Judgement with consequences of Rewards and Punishments. Two- the God of Unconditional Love/ Infinite Love. Can they co-exist?
There are Theologians in the Catholic Church who are openly questioning the concept of Hell. Richard Rohr’s book on “Hell No!” explains and analyses scripture verses concerning Hell, and then put forward the revival of an unconditional and profoundly loving God theology that does not support the eternal torturous punishment for the bad, the unholy, the unbeliever, the non-Christian, the Muslim, the Buddhist, the other.
In his pivotal Book, Richard Rohr[1] recognizes that until Christians deal with their false notion of hell, their capacity to love and trust God is seriously compromised. Such a belief aims the whole Christian life in a fear-based direction and with a narrow win/lose worldview that only appeals to the ego. This view of hell makes God much smaller than the teaching of Jesus reveals.
Love cannot happen through threat, punishment, or demand. God’s ways are much more subtle and true. The largely medieval notion of hell that many Christians hold to this day makes mystical union with God largely impossible and even undesirable.
Richard uses Scripture, the Fathers and mystics of the Church, philosophy, and psychology to demonstrate that Divine Love is stronger than death or sin. That is the summary point of the Gospel. God’s victory, revealed in Jesus’ resurrection, is a victory for all of creation!
Can the two concepts of God coexist? What happens to your world view when a theologian like Richard Rohr writes a book questioning the idea of Hell. What happens to your concept of God, A God of Judgement, when you demolish the concept of hell? What do you feel? What do you think?
There are many spiritual thinkers that promote different ideas of the afterlife which do not include the simple duality of Heaven and Hell. Some religions believe in reincarnation, some believe in nothing, some believe it is not so much a place but a state closeness with God, some believe there are different parts, different suburbs of heaven. There are the inner suburbs where the good people go closer to God, and there are the far outskirts where the bad people live. There are many concepts of after life with very little evidence.
If one considers that the notion of hell is questionable, what questions arises in your mind if you consider a physical world and a spiritual world without a Hell. Are we open to this mystery of our human existence?
[1] You can search for information/books/audio/videos of Richard Rohr work online. Much of his material is found in the Website- Centre for Action and Contemplation. https://cac.org/
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