Where the Hell is Hell? Orthodox and Heretical Interpretations

This morning I ran across the blog Out of Ur, a discussion site hosted by the editors of the Leadership Journal. What caught my eye was the article, "Loving the Hell Out of People," a piece originally published in Prism--America's Alternative Evangelical Voice and written by Shane Claiborne. In particular, I'm interested in his interpretation of hell. To quote the end of the article, Shane says

God is in the business of rescuing people from the hells they experience on earth. And God is asking us to love people out of those hells.

Nowadays many of us spend a lot of time pondering and theologizing about heaven on earth and God’s Kingdom coming here (and rightly so!), but it seems we would also do well to do a little work with the reality of hell. Hell is not just something that comes after death, but something many are living in this very moment… 1.2 billion people that are groaning for a drop of water each day, over 30,000 kids starving to death each day, 38 million folks dying of AIDS. It seems ludicrous to think of preaching to them about hell. I see Jesus spending far more energy loving the “hell” out of people, and lifting people out of the hells in which they are trapped, than trying to scare them into heaven. And one of the most beautiful things we get to see in community here in Kensington, is people who have been loved out of the hells that they find themselves in—domestic violence, addiction, sex trafficking, loneliness.

To myself, what Shane says make a lot of sense insofar as for many people hell is right here on earth. But this interpretation flies in the face of more traditional and entrenched interpretations of hell. For many Bible believers, hell is a place the unsaved go after they die. It is a place where spirits burn in torment, not a physical locale.

The logics of these two interpretations of hell, what I will call the concrete hell on earth and the metaphysical hell, clash. This clash is evidenced by some of the critical comments that followed Shane's article. Take one as an example:

well, there's alot that could be said about this post, but one point is obvious: you can't have your exegesis two ways. You can't talk about Jesus describing people who refuse to be loving toward others as going to a place of torment after they die and then switch your metaphor to rescuing people out of pitiful situations. Maybe it was Jesus who said "unless you are converted you will all likewise perish." 2000 years of Christianity have agreed with the teachings of Christ and the apostles that spiritual rebirth by faith in Christ is essential. As you love people in word and deed the fact that without Christ there is a place of eternal torment for all humans because of their rebellion against God has to come into play at some point.

This clash is evidenced further in a far more consequential way in the case of Rev. Carlton Pearson. I commented on the differences between Orthodox and Heretical biblical interpretations a few months back. To quote from that post

He [Carlton Pearson] began preaching that hell was not a transcendent place. Hell was here on earth--we make our own hell here on earth. This was a revelation Pearson had--while holding his grand-daughter one afternoon he saw a documentary on the Rwandan genocide and all the death and destruction that man waged against man. After prayer, he understood that hell was man made.

Rev. Pearson was formally defined as a Heretic. Evangelicals that had long called him friend and colleague shunned him and refused the possibility of this alternative interpretation.

To see Shane talking a similar line as Rev. Pearson is heartening. Different interpretations are active, but there are clearly consequences to articulating views of hell that do not parallel more entrenched views. To put this in over-simplified and over-generalized terms, the logics at work in this clash inform modernist and postmodernist worldviews. It will be interesting to see how these interpretations play out over time.

For myself, talk of hell as a metaphysical locale where souls burn makes little sense. Hell on earth is concrete. We can see the "gnashing of teeth" all around us. There is little reason to quicken our metaphysical imaginations less we wish only to obscure what is front of our faces.