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The details of St. Thomas Aquinas's anthropological view are subject to debate. Some philosophers believe he held that human persons survive their deaths. Other philosophers think he held that human persons cease to exist at their death, but come back into being at the general resurrection. In this paper, I defend the latter view against one of the most significant objections it faces, namely, that it entails that God punishes and rewards separated souls for the sins or merits of something else: the (non-existent) persons to whom those souls once belonged. The objector takes this entailment to be problematic. I argue that it fits in well with St. Thomas's views about punishment and about persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article consists of a critical discussion of the debate between Thomas Talbott and Oliver Crisp on the philosophical justification for the traditional Augustinian concept of everlasting punishment in hell. First, I outline the debate, describing Talbott's challenges to the Augustinian retributivist understanding of everlasting punishment and Crisp's responses to them. Next, I analyse their main points of disagreement, indicating the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments. Finally, I present conclusions arising from analysis of the debate in the framework of Christian theology, and I discuss possible implications for the thesis of everlasting punishment in monotheistic religious thought in general. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If the ideal of justice includes effective punishment of offenders, an extension into afterlife must be postulated. This still involves all the questionable aspects and paradoxes of punishment that make rational and enlightened argumentation difficult. A historical survey of ancient tentatives at hell lore shows diverse starting points and interests. There is just a germ of such speculations in Sumerian. When hell fire first appears in Egypt, it goes together with the fear of magic from the dead; in Zoroastrianism and Judaism it is partisan interest which makes the adherents of the wrong religion destined for hell. In Greece we find various ethical and poetical motifs interfering, from the powerful yet enigmatic images in the Odyssey to a general proclamation of punishments in the Hymn to Demeter. The most graphic and horrible descriptions of something like hell are finally found in Plato, whose sources — besides Homer — can be postulated but not identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It will be argued in this paper that Odysseus does not descend into Hades even though he witnesses the punishment of certain sinners and that the latter are envisaged in the sky as constellations. This hypothesis explains the phrase “meadow of asphodels” and the repetitive action of the sinners. It will also be argued that the origin of this cosmology is Egyptian. The Homeric cosmos is divided into a diurnal and nocturnal world: a human habitation and one which lies beyond the sun's orbit and contains the heroes and the dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seneca's Apocolocyntosis, the earliest extant example of ancient Menippean satire, tells of Emperor Claudius' death and ascent to heaven, where his request for deification is rejected by the council of the gods, and his subsequent descent to the underworld, where he is condemned of mass murder of Roman noblemen. Claudius is not an observer of things in heaven and the underworld or a character involved in a quest for knowledge and truth, but a dead character who undergoes judgment. He is also a dead character who behaves as if he were still alive. Seneca suggests that Claudius' afterlife is a mere continuation of his earthly life and vice-versa that he had always been living in an isolated and “fantastic” world. The Apocolocyntosis parodies epic descents and historiographical topoi as well as the mythological otherworld of punishment and reward, ideas of afterlife, and imperial deification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article surveys some relevant developments of conceptualizations of hell in the Rg-Veda, the Avestan corpus and the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) literature of the Zoroastrians, where hell is more extensively discussed. The article concludes by looking at the belief in heaven and hell among the world-wide Zoroastrian diaspora communities, urban laity in Mumbai, and professional priests in Westen India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the theory of escapism, where God has a relationship with those in Hell. The theories of luck and the theory of Hell as they relate to religion are also discussed. The author feels that the problem of religious luck is problematic for the theory of Hell. The author poses a hybrid solution where there is a compromise between the two ideologies.

The article focuses on a causal theory of verdicts that condemns the actual prepunishment of people for their future crimes. In the book "The Minority Report," a science fiction story about pre-crime, Precrime Commissioner, John T. Anderton, is himself accused of the future murder of a man unknown to him. He struggles to prove his innocence. A verdict is a finding of guilt. The defendant's legal status only changes when the verdict is incorporated in a judgment of conviction.

Examines the contextual analysis and interpretation of the notions of rape and sex in "Inferno," by Dante Alighieri. Influence of the apocryphal literature "Gospel of Nicodemus" and Descensus christi ad inferos" on Dante; Describes Dante's perspective of the punitive component of Christ where he not only rewarded the virtuous but also punished the wicked; Comments and criticisms on the harrowing narrative of Virgil on the descriptions of hell; Definition of the scholastic model of hell suggesting the connection of geographic stratification and the moral classification of sinners; Contextual analysis on the notion of sexualized rape of heaven and the attribution of heaven as an immaculate virgin; Comparison of the notions of Christ in presence and Christ in power.

Responds to Jerry L. Walls' challenging critique of Thomas Talbott's view of hell. Clarification of the most fundamental point of disagreement; Argument that Walls' free-will theodicy of hell requires that God interfere with human freedom in inappropriate ways.

Responds to Thomas Talbott's criticism of the view of hell which Jerry L. Walls has defended. Argument that coherent sense can be made of the choice to be eternally separated from God; Failure of Talbott to show how God can save everyone without overriding their freedom; Argument that there is no significant sense in which sinners defeat God or sin with impunity; Observation that Talbott's case that universalism necessarily follows from God's perfect love and power fails.

The purgatory doctrine, which has played a vital role in Christian culture, states that most believers must experience afterlife punishment in order to be cleansed of their sins before entering Heaven. Traditional Islamic theology rejects the notion of purgatory (Al-Motahher) through the Balance doctrine (Mizan), which states that if the good deeds performed during a Muslim's life outweigh their bad deeds, the person will enter heaven without suffering or punishment. This study hypothesizes that folk intuitions and cognitive biases (tendency to proportionality) explain, in part, the emergence and spread of the purgatory doctrine in the Islamic world. Drawing on a cognitive science of religion lens, the current study examines this hypothesis in an Islamic cultural context. Quantitative surveys (three studies) conducted in Jordan (n = 605, and n = 239) and Malaysia (n = 303) indicate that the doctrine of purgatory is prevalent (36% in Jordan and 69% in Malaysia) despite its contradiction with the Balance doctrine as defined by Islamic theology. To our knowledge, this is the first study documenting the phenomenon of theological incorrectness in Muslim afterlife beliefs by using empirical research. Implementation of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the infernal metamorphose in the interpretation of counterpass or contrapasso of Dante Alighieri. Contention of the author that the definition of contrapasso is appropriate to the term referred by Dante as the entire theory of punishment; Concept of hell by Dante and the Augustinian model of the infernal state; Comparison of hell and purgatory; Parallelism of Christian eschatology and Ovidian poetics.

Examines the presentation of illicit pleasures in the interpretation of Purgatorio XXVI in the "Divine Comedy," of Dante Alighieri. Description of purgatory; Analysis on the portrayal of the vices of pilgrims like sexuality and carnal pleasure in the after-life; Interpretation of the relationship and paradoxical interplay of pain and pleasure in medieval perspective; Concept and purgation of sexual shame; Usage and references of indizo or indexes; Description of the pleasures in Paradise.

Presents a rejoinder to Thomas Talbott's reply to Jerry L. Walls' criticism of Talbott's view of hell. Argument that Talbott's clarifications pose a dilemma for him; Need for Talbott to either modify his account of unbearable misery or give up his claim that all sinners must reach a point where they can resist God no farther.