How Does a Loving God Punish? On the Unification of God's Love and Punitive Wrath

Abstract

There are two influential and opposing theological paradigms concerning the relationship between God's love and punitive wrath. According to the first paradigm, which is here labelled the ‘divergent account’, God may sometimes punish an individual in a manner that is opposed to his love. Alternatively, there is the ‘unitary account’, according to which God's punitive wrath is an expression of love that seeks the creature's good. In the present article, an argument for the unitary account is provided, and a fresh way of understanding God's punishment therein is considered. The article proceeds as follows. In the first section, a dominant motivation for the divergent account is distilled through an examination of the writings of Emil Brunner. This motivation is then rejected and the unitary account is defended in the next section, in light of the New Testament ethic of love. In the third section, the work of Gregory of Nyssa and the contemporary philosopher R.A. Duff is utilized to develop a communicative theory of God's punishment, which illuminates and fortifies the unitary account. In the final section, the unitary account, together with the communicative theory of divine punishment, is applied to the doctrine of hell.

Modern Theological Debates of Hell in the USA

“…This has been seen in the Eastern church since the early days of Christianity. 59 The Catholic approach turns the tables, so to speak, and looks at the question in a different way. It is not God as a punisher who is lying in wait to trap a weak and unsuspecting man, but instead God as love who wants nothing more than our salvation.…”