Heaven and Hell

Sitting on too many end tables are copies of Rodin’s The Thinker. Besides the half empty coffee cup, what is he thinking about? (see my previous post) The Thinker is part of a Rodin’s Masterpiece, The Gates of Hell. The Thinker is pondering a massive sculpture depicting the darkest third of Dante’s The Divine Comedy (Dante himself is the model for the thinker).

From time to time thinkers ponder the nature and problem of Hell. Some of them publish, but most of them just drink coffee and talk. Brian McLaren is among those who publish. I think that a frank and open conversation about the nature of hell is vital for those interested in encouraging others to follow Jesus. For to long to many evangelicals have prayed “Thy kingdom come” and thought mostly about heaven (In the Sweet by and by), and not much about earth. One of the points of contention between exclusivist Christianity and the universalism of so much of our culture is eternal destiny; who is going to heaven and who is going to hell? If we are going to be serious about Thy Kingdom Come, we need to think carefully about what and how we communicate about human destiny after death.

I think I am going to pull out McLaren’s book and The Last Word and the Word after That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianityreview what he is thinking about.