Heaven and Hell in Christian Thought by Thomas Talbott is a text that carefully examines how are understanding of the Divine is reflected in our beliefs surrounding death. I would also argue that ultimately how we believe others will be treated in death reflects not only our view of the divine but how we will relate to others in life. The entry strives to simplify the complex theological history and inconsistent teachings on the issues of heaven and hell. It logically presents three eschatological views: an Augustinian, Arminian, and Universalist. And explores how each reflects an image of the Divine that is congruent with their view of the afterlife. To achieve this the concepts of divine love, power, and grace are examined along with free
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The first is regarding the states of heaven and hell: heaven is existence with God and hell is existence without God. The second is the goal of the Christian religion: salvation from the human condition of initial estrangement from God. After these assumptions he lays out three postulates that state the different Christian beliefs regarding the “ultimate success of God’s saving activity among human beings”. (Talbott, 2017) The three postulates that cannot each be accepted, are:
1. All humans are equal objects of God’s unconditional love in the sense that God sincerely wills or desires to reconcile each one of them to himself and thus to prepare each one of them for the bliss of union with him.
2. Almighty God will triumph in the end and successfully reconcile to himself each person whose reconciliation he sincerely wills or desires.
3. Some humans will never be reconciled to God and will therefore remain separated from him forever. (Talbott, 2017)
Using these three postulates Talbot is able to differentiate the three Eschatological view, by which of the three postulates that view rejects. I cannot summari (Talbott, 2017)ze each view in the scope of this paper but I will share for each view which postulate it rejects and a reflection of the Divine this provides. As well as my own thought on
The first is regarding the states of heaven and hell: heaven is existence with God and hell is existence without God. The second is the goal of the Christian religion: salvation from the human condition of initial estrangement from God. After these assumptions he lays out three postulates that state the different Christian beliefs regarding the “ultimate success of God’s saving activity among human beings”. (Talbott, 2017) The three postulates that cannot each be accepted, are:
1. All humans are equal objects of God’s unconditional love in the sense that God sincerely wills or desires to reconcile each one of them to himself and thus to prepare each one of them for the bliss of union with him.
2. Almighty God will triumph in the end and successfully reconcile to himself each person whose reconciliation he sincerely wills or desires.
3. Some humans will never be reconciled to God and will therefore remain separated from him forever. (Talbott, 2017)
Using these three postulates Talbot is able to differentiate the three Eschatological view, by which of the three postulates that view rejects. I cannot summari (Talbott, 2017)ze each view in the scope of this paper but I will share for each view which postulate it rejects and a reflection of the Divine this provides. As well as my own thought on