J
JamesATyler
Guest
I admit I have not done my homework on Hell. I have gathered that Catholics believe that Hell is a place. It is something that a person chooses.
This is what I thought Hell was and I wonder if there is any truth in it. I thought Hell was a state of the soul. I believed that sin converts the soul to a state that ultimately leads to various outcomes like despair or hatred. But in all cases I think the capacity for good things like love, hope, and faith is diminished. The Church makes a point to categorize what a particular sin is against. Like despair is against hope. So when a person falls into despair and becomes unwilling to change he loses his capacity for hope.
My thought was that Hell is the result of sins serious enough to destroy a person’s capacity for love, hope, and faith. The fire is a metaphor for the process of eternal destruction. The end result of Hellfire is the complete annihilation of the soul, which is what I understood to be eternal destruction.
This is why I agree with the idea that Hell is chosen. What brings a person down into Hell is sin. Sin is chosen. The effects of sin on the soul are inescapable (without Christ’s help) because our intellectual and emotional structure are ordered toward virtue. As a Catholic, I believe we are ordered this way because we are in His image.
In what ways do I agree or disagree with the Church?
This is what I thought Hell was and I wonder if there is any truth in it. I thought Hell was a state of the soul. I believed that sin converts the soul to a state that ultimately leads to various outcomes like despair or hatred. But in all cases I think the capacity for good things like love, hope, and faith is diminished. The Church makes a point to categorize what a particular sin is against. Like despair is against hope. So when a person falls into despair and becomes unwilling to change he loses his capacity for hope.
My thought was that Hell is the result of sins serious enough to destroy a person’s capacity for love, hope, and faith. The fire is a metaphor for the process of eternal destruction. The end result of Hellfire is the complete annihilation of the soul, which is what I understood to be eternal destruction.
This is why I agree with the idea that Hell is chosen. What brings a person down into Hell is sin. Sin is chosen. The effects of sin on the soul are inescapable (without Christ’s help) because our intellectual and emotional structure are ordered toward virtue. As a Catholic, I believe we are ordered this way because we are in His image.
In what ways do I agree or disagree with the Church?