Kevin Miller's long-awaited new book about the Hellbound? movie is now out.
Hellrazed?
Edited by Kevin Miller
(Kevin Miller XI Productions Inc., 2017). 220 pages.
In September 2012, the feature-length documentary Hellbound? was released in theaters across North America. Joining a growing chorus of voices that were questioning the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal conscious torment, the film asked a handful of “burning” questions. Does hell exist? If so, who goes there, and why? More importantly, what do our views about hell say about us and our understanding of God? And how do our beliefs about these issues affect the kind of world we create, the kind of people we become?
Five years later, the debate over hell is far from settled, but the landscape in which such questions are being asked has changed radically. Hence, filmmaker Kevin Miller decided it was time to go back to some of the people who appear in Hellbound? and others he met along the way to get their input on how the debate has shifted and how it’s remained the same. The result is a plethora of voices offering all sorts of perspectives, some highly academic, some polemic, some intensely personal, and all bound to impact how readers think and feel about this issue.
Contributors:
- Frank Schaeffer
- Brad Jersak
- Ron Dart
- Michael Hardin
- Archbishop Lazar Puhalo
- Julie Ferwerda
- Sharon L. Putt
- Joshua Tongol
- Brian Zahnd
- Randal Rauser
- Jaime Clark-Soles
- Robin Parry
- Thomas Talbott
- Kevin Miller
- Adam Ericksen
- Jackson Baer
- Rayborn Johnson
- Andrew Klager
- Heath Bradley
- Richard Beck
- Christopher Morrissey
- Eric Reitan
- Matthew Peter Klein
- Wayne Northey
- Derek Flood
Comments
deification or theosis is a mainstream teaching in the Eastern Church and has been affirmed by major theologians in the Western Church throughout history, though not always using the same vocabulary. The idea is that humanity is destined for union with God in which we come to share in the divine glory, becoming divine, without becoming identical with God's essence. It is important to find a way to retain the Creator-creature distinction within such a theology, and the church has tried to do that. The idea of the teaching is that theosis is the destiny for which God created humanity in the first place, so we are not ceasing to be human but are becoming fully and completely human as we share in God. But to flesh out a full theology of theosis is a major task and not something I can do here. Save to say that I embrace such theology so long as the Creator-creature distinction is not eschatologically dissolved.
I have nothing against paradox, indeed, I embrace it, but I do not see a paradox in the freewill/determinism issue because if determinism is true I consider it compatible with free will. But if you disagree then there may be a paradoxical way to have your cake and eat it ... perhaps.
Not really. The tradition does not use the terminology of apotheosis, though I am familiar with the concept from classical Greco-Roman material. I'd start with texts that offer helpful clarification on the doctrine of theosis as it is found in the Christian tradition. It is quite a trendy topic, so you can find quite a few. There is some good material in these two volumes:
https://wipfandstock.com/theosis.html
https://wipfandstock.com/theosis-18014.html
Robin