Thank again, Richard. The Creed emphasizes the judgment aspect: He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I agree with you that judgment in that sense is an evangelistic tool (in moderation?). I’m not an expert on linguistics, but DB Hart and others point out that the word often translated eternal is really about an age or ages rather than endless time.
Richard you rightly describe the tough love of Jesus ' evangelistic parables , effective preaching confronts and challenges it doesn't smooth over. It does so without glee or apology. The starker the warning the more likely a response. The parable of the sheep and goats should lead to no goats.
Not only is our vision of hell medieval, it is the vision of the Germanic tribes that weren't Christianized until about the year 900. Charlemagne's heirs sent recently converted (or not-quite-converted) soldiers to help out the Pope in Rome, and it's quite plausible to me that those soldiers' notions about Valhalla and "the other place" seeped into people's ideas about the afterlife. After all, who wouldn't want their enemies to undergo eternal conscious torment? God will give them what they deserve, right?... And those ideas crept into the consciousness of the thinkers in the West. Eastern Christians did not ever have these ideas.
Thank again, Richard. The Creed emphasizes the judgment aspect: He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I agree with you that judgment in that sense is an evangelistic tool (in moderation?). I’m not an expert on linguistics, but DB Hart and others point out that the word often translated eternal is really about an age or ages rather than endless time.
Very informative!
Richard you rightly describe the tough love of Jesus ' evangelistic parables , effective preaching confronts and challenges it doesn't smooth over. It does so without glee or apology. The starker the warning the more likely a response. The parable of the sheep and goats should lead to no goats.
Thanks, Richard, good points.
Not only is our vision of hell medieval, it is the vision of the Germanic tribes that weren't Christianized until about the year 900. Charlemagne's heirs sent recently converted (or not-quite-converted) soldiers to help out the Pope in Rome, and it's quite plausible to me that those soldiers' notions about Valhalla and "the other place" seeped into people's ideas about the afterlife. After all, who wouldn't want their enemies to undergo eternal conscious torment? God will give them what they deserve, right?... And those ideas crept into the consciousness of the thinkers in the West. Eastern Christians did not ever have these ideas.
Dana
Thanks. Some really interesting reflections