We continue today the methodical study of “Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism” by Allan Kardec. The first edition was published in August 1, 1865. This work is part of the Kardecian Pentateuch. The answers to the questions suggested for discussion are at the end of the text below.
Questions for discussion
A. How does the Catholic theology describe Hell?
B. Children go to the limbo. What is the meaning of limbo?
C. According to the Catholic theology, God made two miracles so that the damned to hell could suffer even more. What are these miracles?
D. The Christian hell surpasses the Pagan hell. What are their differences?
Reading Text
35. Man always sensed and believed his afterlife would be happy or unhappy according to how he behaved in this world. However, the way he behaves in this life is the direct reason of his development, ideas, and moral applied to the practice of good and evil. (First Part, Chapter IV, section 1.)
36. The primitive man, unable to understand except what he saw, shaped his future by copying his present. To be able to understand other kinds, besides those he could see, it would be necessary to possess an intellectual development, which he would only acquire in time to come. (First Part, Chapter IV, section 2.)
37. Thus, what he imagines about future punishments is only the reflection of the evils of Mankind, in a larger proportion, with all the torture, torments, and troubles he found on Earth. That is why, except for small changes, all hells of all religions are alike. (First Part, Chapter IV, section 2.)
38. The Pagan's hell, described and dramatized by poets, was the greatest model, followed and perpetuated within the Christians. If compared, we shall find several common points. Both hells use fire to torment. It is a symbol of the worst suffering. However, something strange happens. The Christians overstate many points of the Pagan's hell. (First Part, Chapter IV, section 3.)
39. When Heaven and Hell were defined, Christian sects accepted only two extreme situations for the souls, the perfect happiness, and the absolute suffering. Purgatory is only an intermediate and temporary position, and when the souls leave it, they go directly to the mansion of the blessed. (First Part, Chapter IV, section 7.)
40. It could not be different, because of the belief in the soul's definite luck after death. If there are only two dwellings, that of the blessed and that of the damned, there cannot be levels in each one of them, without having to admit the possibility of progress. Now, if there is progress, then there is no definite luck. If there is definite luck, there is no progress. Jesus settled the matter when He said, "There are many mansions in my Father's house." (First Part, Chapter IV, section 7.)
41. We become acquainted with the Pagan's hell through the poets Homer and Virgil's texts about the matter. Fenelon in "Telemachus," also describes it, however without the excesses so peculiar to the poetic form. (First Part, Chapter IV, section 9.)
42. However, there is a question: how are there men who say they saw hell in a state of ecstasy, if it does not exist? The explanation is simple: the state of ecstasy is the most uncertain of all revelations. (1) (First Part, Chapter IV, section 15.)
Answers to the proposed questions
A. How does the Catholic theology describe Hell?
The Christian's hell was copied from the Pagan's hell and has several points in common. Both hells use fire to torment, and it is a symbol of the worst suffering. However, something strange happens. The Christians overstate many points of the Pagan's hell. We find examples, such as vessels with boiling water, and the angels uncovering them to see the contortions of the tortured while God, with no pity at all, hears them moaning through eternity. Christians and Pagans have their King of Hell - Satan. The difference, however, is that Pluto governed the dark empire, which he inherited, without being bad. He kept in his domain those who had been evil, because that was his mission, but he did not induce men to sin to enjoy or be contented with their sufferings. However, Satan recruits victims everywhere and has pleasure in tormenting them with a legion of demons armed with pitchforks to revolve them on fire. As for the location of hell, some teachers place it in the most profound center of our globe. Others, we do not know in what planet. This matter was never solved in any council. (Heaven and Hell, Part First, Chapter IV, sections 3 to 5, 11 and 12.)
B. Children go to the limbo. What is the meaning of limbo?
Children, who die at a young age, having practiced no harm whatsoever, cannot be condemned to the eternal fire. However, not having done any good too, they do not have the right to the supreme happiness. They stay in limbos, so says the Church, in a never defined situation, in which, if they do not suffer, they also never enjoy the bliss. The nature of this limbo, however, was never clarified. (2) (Ibid, First Part, Chapter IV, sections 7 and 8.)
C. According to the Catholic theology, God made two miracles so that the damned to hell could suffer even more. What are these miracles?
The first miracle was the resurrection of the body, something unacceptable, especially when the body of the person who died has dissolved with time. The second miracle is to provide these mortal bodies with the virtue to subsist without dissolving in a furnace, where the metals themselves would volatilize. (Ibid, First Part, Chapter IV, section 13.)
D. The Christian's hell surpasses the Pagan's hell. What are their differences?
Besides the comments to question A, in the Pagan's hell we do not find refinement in torture, which is the base of the Christian's hell. Stern judges, however righteous, utter the sentence, always proportionate to the offense, while in Satan's empire all are involved in the same torturing, based on materiality, and all equity is banned. In the Christian's hell, the sentences are not proportionate to the seriousness of the sin committed, but they are the same for all those who practiced it. (Ibid, First Part, Chapter IV, sections 9 to 15.)
Notes:
(1) See the teaching contained in issues 443 and 444 of The Book of Spirits. We must also consider that man may have seen images of the region called the thick Umbral, mentioned in the book "Cidade no Além", by Heigorina Cunha, where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth," as Jesus said.
(2) Recently, the Catholic Church voided all provisions, which referred to the limbo, understanding that God has invisible means, not communicated to men, to save all children, even those who die without baptism.
