Punitive Love

Abstract

While a number of theologians maintain that the motives resting behind God’s love and punitive wrath are often opposed to one another, Chapter 6 argues that God’s just wrath is a facet of His love and that God’s punishment of sinners is an expression of this relentless love. To make this case, it is first contended that God’s creation out of love as well as the ministry of Christ support the notion that God’s love and punitive wrath are fundamentally one. Next, the work of Gregory of Nyssa and the contemporary philosopher R.A. Duff are built upon to construct a communicative model of divine punishment. According to this model, God’s punishment intends to communicate to sinners the censure they deserve, with the aim of persuading these individuals to start down the path of spiritual transformation. In the final section, the communicative theory of divine punishment is applied to the doctrine of hell. There it is suggested that, given the communicative theory, hell is best seen as a place where God tries to reform sinners and enable them to exit hell and join the glorified saints. But, it is shown, this conception of hell does not by itself entail universal salvation.