342. Hellfire
342. HELLFIRE
Does the previous point mean that there cannot possibly be physical fire and pain in Hell too, but only spiritual pain? Wouldn’t both pains be worse than either one alone?
Whether the fire of hell will be corporeal?
Objection 1. It would seem that the fire of hell whereby the bodies of the damned will be tormented will not be corporeal. For Damascene says: The devil and demons . . . together with the ungodly and sinners, will be cast into everlasting fire, not material fire, such as that which we have, but such as God knoweth. . . .
Reply to Objection 1. Damascene does not absolutely deny that this fire is material, but that it is not material as our fire, since it differs from ours in some of its properties. . .
Objection 2. Augustine says: In my opinion the place to which the soul is committed after death is spiritual and not corporeal. . . .
Reply to Objection 2. We may reply that Augustine is expressing an opinion without deciding the point, as he often does. . . (S97,5).
I answer that There have been many opinions about the fire of hell. For some philosophers, as Avicenna, disbelieving in the resurrection (of the body), thought that the soul alone would be punished after death. And as they considered it impossible for the soul, being incorporeal, to be punished with a corporeal fire, they denied that the fire whereby the wicked are punished is corporeal, and pretended that all statements (in the Koran) as to souls being punished in a future after death by any corporeal means are to be taken metaphorically. For just as the joy and happiness of good souls will not be about any corporeal object, but about something spiritual, namely the attainment of their end, so will the torment of the wicked be merely spiritual, in that they will be grieved at being separated from their end, the desire whereof is in them by nature. Wherefore, just as all descriptions of the soul’s delight after death that seem to denote bodily pleasure—for instance, that they are refreshed, that they smile, and so forth—must be taken metaphorically, so also are all such descriptions of the soul’s suffering as seem to imply bodily punishment, for instance, that they burn in fire, or suffer from the stench, and so forth. For as spiritual pleasure and pain are unknown to the majority, these things need to be declared under the figure of corporeal pleasures and pains in order that men may be moved the more to the desire or fear thereof. . . .
Avicenna himself added another explanation by saying that the souls of the wicked are punished after death not by bodies but by images of bodies, just as in a dream it seems to a man that he is suffering various pains on account of such like images being in his imagination. Even Augustine seems to hold this kind of punishment. . . .
But this would seem an unreasonable statement, for the imagination is a power that makes use of a bodily organ, so that it is impossible for such visions of the imagination to occur in the soul separated from the body . . . Augustine (in another text) admits that the fire by which the bodies are tormented is corporeal. . . (S97,5).
Those who disbelieve in the resurrection of the body do not believe there can be corporeal fire in Hell because there is no body to experience it. But Christians believe in the resurrection of the body. It is one of the twelve articles in the Apostles’ Creed. If justice calls for a corporeal dimension in the rewards for corporeal works of goodness, the same justice calls for a corporeal dimension in the punishments for corporeal works of evil.
St. Thomas admits this is only human opinion, not certain divine revelation. But how likely is it that Hell, the greatest evil and the deprivation of all good, will be less complete and terrible than we can imagine, if Heaven will be much more complete and wonderful than we can imagine? (1 Cor 2:9).