The Fixed Pains of Hell
C. S. Lewis’s Defense of the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment
The Dominical utterances about Hell, like all Dominical utterances, are addressed to the conscience and the will, not to intellectual curiosity. . . . I could not pay one ten-thousandth of the price that God has already paid to remove the fact. And here is the real problem: so much mercy, yet still there is Hell. —C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis was perhaps the most influential lay theologian of the twentieth century. His work in apologetics famously helped lead to the conversion of Chuck Colson and has been an influence in the preservation of the faith of countless others in times of doubt. His Chronicles of Narnia have made Christian doctrine come alive for untold thousands. He mounted a brilliant and often insightful defense of traditional, supernatural Christianity that fully justifies his continuing popularity among the faithful.
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Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. He stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, between theology and literature, and between Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023). He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
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