Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Final destinies

Hitchens and Hell - NYTimes.com

Ross Douthat (gee, I can never remember how he spells his surname) takes the death of Christopher Hitchens as an opportunity to talk about the mysteries and divisions in Christianity regarding "salvation theory". I've always been partial to the "hell as purgatory for most people" theory of CS Lewis.

2 comments:

TimT said...

Did you ever read C S Lewis's 'The Great Divorce'? (A shallow fictional treatment of his views on heaven and hell and his 'purgatory' theory). Quite interesting for what it's worth but aside from one or two characteristically lyrical passages, and one or two satirical touches it would work much better as an essay rather than fiction.

I read it about two years ago, on one of those desolate summer weekends, emerging out of a shabby strip of suburban shops, and I must admit his opening description of hell as an endless suburb at the close of day was quite disturbing.

Steve said...

Yes I did read it, but many, many years ago. I don't recall much apart from the general idea. I agree, maybe it would have been better as an essay.