St. Augustine and Hell

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Rand_Al_Thor

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Pax vobiscum!

I am reading St. Augustine’s Confessions and I found something that is kind of confusing. In chapter 2 he writes, "Because I am not yet in hell, though You are even there; for ‘if I go down into hell You are there.’ "

Is he saying that God is in hell, or am I missing his point?

In Christ,
Rand
 
Hi Rand,

I remember an answer in my small catechism.

-Where is God?
  • God is everywhere and sees all our thoughts and actions.
Pure spirits are where they are active. God is active in everything that he created; therefore he is everywhere that he created.

Verbum
 
Verbum said:
Hi Rand,

I remember an answer in my small catechism.

-Where is God?
  • God is everywhere and sees all our thoughts and actions.
Pure spirits are where they are active. God is active in everything that he created; therefore he is everywhere that he created.

Verbum
Click to expand...
Ah, but Hell has been described as “the absence of God” or at a minimum being separated from Him; therefore, how can he be there?
 
Hi Slow__,

You are right. Hell is not yet a place, since no one has resurrected who was damned. Right now, hell is indeed only the absence of God. So, technically St. Gus was not correct. But remember the Confessions are in a very poetic style.

Verbum

PS When the new heavens and the new earth come about, will hell be a specific place where people will burn wilthout consuming? Or will the damned have to wander the earth, having to forage for food, subject to sickness etc, knowing that God has abandonned them and having to live like this forever? We can only speculate. They might be on another planet!

V
 
John Cardinal Newman once made a remark to the effect that the light of God’s love shining on the blessed in Heaven was experienced as burning fire by those in Hell. If one assents to this interpretation, then in a sense God is indeed in Hell.
 
Augustine seems to be saying the same thing as the Psalmist:

139:7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 139:8 If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!

Nita
 
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