This thread has to have the record for sheer number of theological turnarounds for Cole so far…
No theologian is totally wise or correct. There never has been a single strand of thought on the fate of the damned in all of the history of the Church. Lewis was inconsistent as Jason pointed out. Paul was overwhelmingly universalist, and the only heresies he really got angry about were gnosticism because they hate the flesh and think Christ couldn’t be wholly God or wholly flesh, let alone both, and he got upset about people trying to impose THEIR legalistic interpretations on God’s grace.
Another patently obvious issue is that if God is only going to show mercy to those who repent, who has any hope at all? God could arbitrarily show no mercy to me, and thus i don’t repent, and thus i never get the mercy…so i’m damned into a Calvinistic vortex of hopeless doom. Well, sod that for a laugh…i think i’ll follow Jesus, the Lord of just mercy and triumphant love, who NEVER EVER gives up on a single being, and will not stop til this broken universe is healed. Not a single atom will remain unredeemed, and thus there CANNOT be any corner of the universe, no matter how small, where God is not found, therefore this “hell” Lewis couldn’t bring himself to disbelieve in will not exist anywhere, locked from the inside or not.
If Lewis is a “great teacher” or “thinker” etc, would it not be wise to follow his example? he saw MacDonald as his teacher…and MacDonald WAS wise enough to throw hell away. Lewis wanted to, but couldn’t overcome the doctrinal baggage. Maybe if he knew what we know now about the translations, and the Church fathers…maybe he wouldn’t come round. Well, he’s a universalist now, that’s all i can say!