Love this. As written as the header on my blog: “To see the good truly is to desire it insatiably; not to desire it is not to have known it, so never to have been free to choose it.” ~ David Bentley Hart
Lewis' understanding of Hell starts, I believe, with Augustine's "incurvatus in se", the inward turning of oneself into oneself. We all know those who has spent a lifetime focusing on themselves, looking out only to discover just how much better they are than everyone else, or to look out only to blame others for their predicament. The experience of coming face-to-face with God and seeing themselves as God sees them is painful, to say the least. Lewis' idea is that they then turn their backs on God and prefer to keep their pride intact. This, obviously, leaves them in a terrible place, separated from God, the source of their true happiness. Lewis proposes that they withdraw from anything that might remind them of that pain, and not just God, but others who are created in God's image. Hell, Lewis imagines, is vast with tiny points of existence, each point being a person separating themselves from other tiny points of existence, fleeing the pain of being reminded of their pride.
"Consequently, to describe these insane, broken, jabbering, and formerly human souls as 'choosing' to keep the door to heaven locked, well, that's foolish." This seems to be more of a description of the inhabitants of an inner city emergency room or a long-term psychiatric facility. After 30 years in a primary care practice, I always had a steady flow of individuals who did things that hurt themselves and others, who knew at some level it was wrong, but did it anyway and repeatedly. Addiction as a medical condition are the lucky ones; when they see God face-to-face, I'd suggest that they are much more likely to say, "Oh! I've been looking for you. Here you are at last!" Hell, I suspect is much more populated by erudite, well-educated and persuasive individuals who brought destruction on others but could always count on a handy scapegoat to blame for bad outcomes. When they see God face-to-face, they are much more likely to respond with "What? What? Who are you? What are you doing? It's not my fault!"
So I’m wondering how a view of “Terminal Punishment” might be viewed here. It makes a lot more sense to me.
Love this. As written as the header on my blog: “To see the good truly is to desire it insatiably; not to desire it is not to have known it, so never to have been free to choose it.” ~ David Bentley Hart
Lewis' understanding of Hell starts, I believe, with Augustine's "incurvatus in se", the inward turning of oneself into oneself. We all know those who has spent a lifetime focusing on themselves, looking out only to discover just how much better they are than everyone else, or to look out only to blame others for their predicament. The experience of coming face-to-face with God and seeing themselves as God sees them is painful, to say the least. Lewis' idea is that they then turn their backs on God and prefer to keep their pride intact. This, obviously, leaves them in a terrible place, separated from God, the source of their true happiness. Lewis proposes that they withdraw from anything that might remind them of that pain, and not just God, but others who are created in God's image. Hell, Lewis imagines, is vast with tiny points of existence, each point being a person separating themselves from other tiny points of existence, fleeing the pain of being reminded of their pride.
"Consequently, to describe these insane, broken, jabbering, and formerly human souls as 'choosing' to keep the door to heaven locked, well, that's foolish." This seems to be more of a description of the inhabitants of an inner city emergency room or a long-term psychiatric facility. After 30 years in a primary care practice, I always had a steady flow of individuals who did things that hurt themselves and others, who knew at some level it was wrong, but did it anyway and repeatedly. Addiction as a medical condition are the lucky ones; when they see God face-to-face, I'd suggest that they are much more likely to say, "Oh! I've been looking for you. Here you are at last!" Hell, I suspect is much more populated by erudite, well-educated and persuasive individuals who brought destruction on others but could always count on a handy scapegoat to blame for bad outcomes. When they see God face-to-face, they are much more likely to respond with "What? What? Who are you? What are you doing? It's not my fault!"