Hell
Christian
The place where followers of that Western religion that emphasizes forgiveness believe the souls of the unforgiven and uncontrite go. Hell is a place of eternal torment. Most Christians see it as a place of fire, a roaring furnace or burning garbage heap where the Damned suffer perpetual torments without relief. It's warden, Satan, is also its chief prisoner. Dante speaks of the place as having nine circles (including Limbo). As one descends lower into the pit, one meets sinners of increasing magnitude, each being punished according to his/her worst deed. Dante's vision is not Biblical, but a medieval version of the place that combined his sense of evil with his personal prejudices against certain figures of his time. MIlton calls the place Pandemonium and says that after the Fall of Man, the rebel angels were transmogrified into hissing serpents. Comparisons of Hell have been made with many unpleasant situations including battlefields, mental hospitals, extermination camps, prisons, dysfunctional households, workplaces, bars, and nasty company. Sartre suggested that we make our own hells. This recalls the ironic words uttered by Milton's Satan: "The mind is its own place and can make a Heaven of a Hell or a Hell of Heaven."
Christians differ over who will go to Hell. Theologians argue that anyone who is truly penitent and gives her/himself over to God will be spared. Most exclude the mentally ill these days, though in Dante's time suicides were thought to be trapped within bleeding trees in an infernal forest. The concept of "Just War" releases soldiers from the stain of murder. Antinomian Christians believe that all that is necessary to evade the Inferno is to believe in Jesus: one's works do not matter. Cannibal Geoffrey Dahlmer was one who met the criteria of contrition and of acceptance of Jesus: a recent poll found, however, that most Christians believed that he was damned nonetheless. As with Dante, who we believe is going to Hell is a matter of personal prejudice. The sin can always be found to justify the assertion of damnation.
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