Publisher's Synopsis
Even if it can be claimed that everyday pain and evil can be paid for by the path of future experience, the misery and suffering of hell leads nowhere, making the concept of hell the most intractable variant of the problem of evil. This book creates a concept of hell that is shared by many different faiths, and it contends that traditional concepts of hell are helpless to resolve the hell issue. Kvanvig begins by arguing that the Christian concept of hell as it is commonly understood today is flawed on moral and epistemic grounds. These flaws have historically prompted the development of competing views to the traditional theology of hell, including universalism, annihilationism, and the doctrine of second chances. However, as Kvanvig demonstrates, the conventional alternatives to the conventional understanding are also insufficient. He contends that the conventional view and the common alternatives both fall short because they are based on a retributive concept of hell, which is problematic in and of itself. Next, Kvanvig constructs a philosophical account of hell that does not rely on a retributive model, and he argues that this account is sufficient on philosophical and theological grounds.
