The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Week 6: Chapter 5 — How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
Read Chapter 5 of The Reason for God by Timothy Keller.
Hell is one of the doctrines people find most repugnant about Christianity — Keller argues that a careful look at what hell actually means in Christian teaching reveals something different from the cartoon version, and that a God without it would not actually be more loving.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.What is your instinctive reaction to the traditional Christian doctrine of hell? Where did that reaction come from — upbringing, culture, personal experience, theology?
2.Keller argues that the modern objection to hell is based on a particular view of love — that a loving God would never allow permanent consequences for human choices. He pushes back by asking whether a love that overrides all human choices is really love or is actually coercion. How do you respond to that argument?
a.If God ultimately forces everyone into his presence regardless of their desires, what does that say about the nature of love and personhood?
b.C.S. Lewis famously said that the doors of hell are locked from the inside. What does that image suggest about human freedom and divine justice?
3.Keller describes hell not primarily as a place of fire and punishment imposed from outside, but as the trajectory of a self that has curved in on itself — the full, unimpeded consequence of choosing self over God. Does this understanding of hell feel more or less troubling to you than the traditional image? Why?
Closing Prayer
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