relational hell
If you have visited my site before than you know that I take pretty seriously the notion that relations form identity. I would go so far to say that understanding of self is impossible without the other.
As I sit with the implications of these thoughts I find that I often circle back to understandings of the afterlife. The language of heaven and hell are seen in much of the NT and we see a few glimpses of the afterlife language in the OT.
A relational understanding of selfhood seems to flow naturally into a theology of heaven. As such heaven may look similar to the trinitarian life of God. Not unlike a fully realized version of Christ's prayer in the seventeenth chapter of John's gospel.
The more challenging question for me continues to be hell (going back to Brian McLaren's book). Separation from God is often translated as complete isolation; complete isolation, it would seem, translates to an identity vacuum. Thus to be truly separated from God would be to cease to exist. Without selfhood (requiring Other) consciousness is inconceivable and without consciousness (as we understand it) would suffering be possible?
Therefore, suffering could only exist as a relational experience of God. Any view of Hell as complete separation from God cannot be understood as a hell of eternal suffering.
Thus hell - like heaven - is God's presence. Without the presence of God suffering is impossible. Hell is separation precisely because it is not complete separation.
peace, dwight
