Early Christians Idea of Hell

That’s not exactly how early Christians used the idea of hell, said Meghan Henning, an associate professor of Christian origins at the University of Dayton. Those early Christians — inspired by the horror of Roman jails — created images of hell and punishment to motivate people to do the right thing in this life.

Fear of hell, she said, was used to motivate people to care for the poor or to live out the virtues of the Sermon on the Mount. That’s distinctly different from how the fear of hell is used today, she said — where failing to care for the poor is not one of the prime sins Americans care about.

Meghan Henning, the author of “Hell Hath No Fury: Gender, Disability, and the Invention of Damned Bodies in Early Christian Literature,”  looks at early Christian ideas about the afterlife,

As organized religion falters, the devil falls on hard times

As faith in God fails, so does belief in the devil. And that may have consequences.

By Bob Smietana

July 31, 2023 Washington Post