Could punishment lessen in Hell over time?

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While Hell is eternal, could the punishments within Hell lessen over time?

Say for example, a person dies as a big liar. Now he will presumably have a punishment fitting for his sin as well as the main state of separation from God. Is it possible that after a certain point, the punishment for this sin lessens as justice for that particular sin is satisfied and eventually the sinner is left with the base punishment of separation from God?

Now it seems sort of clear according to the church that there will be different degrees of punishment in hell. Now if what I said above isn’t true, then does that mean that a murderer would be punished for all eternity at a higher degree than a liar would… for all of eternity? I thought the eternal consequence of being separated from God was mainly due to our deprived nature because of original sin. If our personal sins can be atoned for as stated by Aquinas, could the punishment in Hell account for this? After all, Aquinas does say that punishment is medicinal in nature, and I do not see eternal punishment for a particular sin as very medicinal. I am not trying to say in any way that people will come out of Hell, but rather would their punishments lessen over time?
 
Aquinas says punishment is medicinal in nature but he never says it is exclusively or even primarily medicinal. It is primarily retributive, i.e., punishment restores the order of justice which is wounded by our sins. This is true whether or not it has a medicinal effect. Indeed the medicinal effect is dependent on my willingness to accept that punishment as expiatory.

Now offenses against God are infinite in magnitude precisely because we owe God everything, and can never possibly atone for them effectively on their own. What, exactly, would we give him that he doesn’t already have? The atonement for our sins was, thankfully, given to us in the form of Jesus, but it is still incumbent on us to appropriate that atonement and apply it to ourselves. If we don’t do that then we enter the order of justice in the afterlife, where we are punished according to our sins. Since our sins are infinite in magnitude, we can never fully satisfy the demands of justice, hence our punishment must be infinite in scope and intensity. Hence, Hell.
 
NO

By logic, freeing you of suffering is also freeing up your time, senses and energy to consider it. AND, nothing beats ***THE IDEA OF ***“ETERNITY” for kicking the butt of the most stalwart. As such, it is the cornerstone of the idea of the ultimate nature of the torment of “Hell.”
 
Sultan, I dont think we can know who would suffer more between a murderer and a liar, as we do not know their thoughts, hearts, circumstances.

A liar who maliciously lies and gets a whole family killed might suffer more than an executioner who did his job with some resentment in his heart. Who knows.

And as far as punishments decreasing over time, i highly doubt that. Hell is eternal and we are sentenced for eternity based on the state we die in, for if one dies in whichever state, he makes an irrevocable choice that lasts forever.
 
sw85 said:
Aquinas says punishment is medicinal in nature but he never says it is exclusively or even primarily medicinal. It is primarily retributive, i.e., punishment restores the order of justice which is wounded by our sins. This is true whether or not it has a medicinal effect. Indeed the medicinal effect is dependent on my willingness to accept that punishment as expiatory.

Now offenses against God are infinite in magnitude precisely because we owe God everything, and can never possibly atone for them effectively on their own. What, exactly, would we give him that he doesn’t already have? The atonement for our sins was, thankfully, given to us in the form of Jesus, but it is still incumbent on us to appropriate that atonement and apply it to ourselves. If we don’t do that then we enter the order of justice in the afterlife, where we are punished according to our sins. Since our sins are infinite in magnitude, we can never fully satisfy the demands of justice, hence our punishment must be infinite in scope and intensity. Hence, Hell.
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Thanks for the reply.

We cannot atone for sins on our own? As I understand it, although we may not be able to fully pay the price for sin through atonement, isn’t the idea that our effort to make amends satisfies God and so He grants us forgiveness? For example animal sacrifices in the OT and other sacrifices to God. Aquinas has said that the problem was not our personal sins, which we could atone for, but our original sin that we could not atone for and what Christ’s sacrifice redeemed us from as well as our personal sins. What is your view on that? And why does Christ’s offering free us from original sin, but we ourselves cannot atone for original sin but yet atone for personal sin?
 
Is there time in hell? If not, then clearly the answer is no.

Theoretically, there’s a kind of eternity that is an infinity of time, but God’s eternity, for example, is independent of time. St. Thomas refers to a quasi-eternity the angels experience, called aeviternity. What the blessed or damned experience in this regard I don’t know.
 
A lessening of punishment would lead to hope. There is no hope in hell, as hope is a theological virtue. And, it is a virtue relating to time, as there is no need of hope in heaven, and there is no hope for those in hell.

This is akin to thinking that our reward in heaven can also change.
 
Sultan_Of_Swing said:
While Hell is eternal, could the punishments within Hell lessen over time?

Say for example, a person dies as a big liar. Now he will presumably have a punishment fitting for his sin as well as the main state of separation from God. Is it possible that after a certain point, the punishment for this sin lessens as justice for that particular sin is satisfied and eventually the sinner is left with the base punishment of separation from God?

Now it seems sort of clear according to the church that there will be different degrees of punishment in hell. Now if what I said above isn’t true, then does that mean that a murderer would be punished for all eternity at a higher degree than a liar would… for all of eternity? I thought the eternal consequence of being separated from God was mainly due to our deprived nature because of original sin. If our personal sins can be atoned for as stated by Aquinas, could the punishment in Hell account for this? After all, Aquinas does say that punishment is medicinal in nature, and I do not see eternal punishment for a particular sin as very medicinal. I am not trying to say in any way that people will come out of Hell, but rather would their punishments lessen over time?
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It may or it may not. Punishment may be separation from G-d alone or it may also be accompanied by additional pain and suffering. There may be degrees of punishment or not. My point is how in this world can anyone know for sure what the punishment in hell consists of? Even Christian scholars disagree about the nature of hell. Do the best you can to lead a life of faith, hope, and especially charity, and let G-d take care of the rest.
 
I will just share my quick first impression when I saw this:

Boy is that a bad question to be asking.

It probably comes from a place of mercy though … and not, as it first hit me, like …

well, after you get used to it … it might not be so bad! :nope::bigyikes:

In the lexicon of the day … “Don’t Go There …”

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

… It won’t be even THIS good.
 
Yes, it is certainly possibly that God can and perhaps even will greatly lessen the affliction of the damned, not by forcing his love upon them or denying their choice to reject him, but altering the conditions in which they experienc this rejection.

The Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain had an excellent article on this in a posthumously published article “Untrammeled Approaches.” Basically, he argues that God will slowly bring the damned towards a natural happiness like limbo. Even St. Augustine in City of God played with the idea that the severity might be lessened in hell.
 
po18guy said:
A lessening of punishment would lead to hope. There is no hope in hell, as hope is a theological virtue. And, it is a virtue relating to time, as there is no need of hope in heaven, and there is no hope for those in hell.

This is akin to thinking that our reward in heaven can also change.
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I disagree with the final analysis. In a certain sense, according to adherents of epektasis like Gregory of Nyssa, your ‘rewards’ get progressively better insofar as you continue into the depth and infinity of God’s love for all eternity. This seems likely since we will ‘see’ God in his essence but we can never comprehend it in its entirety; thus we will move further into God for eternity without every exhausting His Sacred Mystery.
 
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