The idea of hell can haunt dreams and disturb sleep. Many wonder at the justice (or injustice) of it all, feeling confounded by a God who deems it necessary to send the majority of humanity to burn there forever. Seventy percent of Americans believe in hell, as do ninety-two percent of those who attend church every week. Clearly, it's a hot topic. Baker offers readers a safe space to contemplate tough issues as they rethink traditional views of hell. In her candid and inviting style Baker explores and ultimately refutes many traditional views of hell, presenting instead theologically sound ways of thinking that are more consistent with the image of God as a loving creator who desires to liberate us from sin and evil. This is an excellent selection for general readers, students, pastors, professors, and grief counselors, and will provide clarity for those with questions about hell, God's judgment, and what happens to us when we die.
Razing Hell
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Fear of hell has been instrumental in gaining converts to Christianity, Baker asserts in this critique of traditional assumptions about a punishing torment awaiting sinners and non-believers after death. Assistant professor and coordinator of the peace studies program at Messiah College, Baker argues for a kinder, gentler image of the afterlife that better comports with the supposed nature and intentions of a gracious and loving God. One result is that the book includes refreshing ways of thinking about how justice might be reconciled with forgiveness. It frequently relies, however, on popular Christian assumptions about God and a nutshell "message of the Bible" that not every reader may agree with. This is odd because Baker discusses biblical texts that challenge reductionist assertions. While the book's conclusions are intriguing and sometimes convincing, Baker's vehicle for pursuing and communicating them through annoying anecdotes and exchanges with three individuals cheapens an otherwise sophisticated argument. This should be a useful book for Christians struggling to reconcile Jesus's sacrifice and a loving God with the place of punishment and the necessity for justice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"This should be a useful book for Christians struggling to reconcile JesusÂ' sacrifice and a loving God with the place of punishment and the necessity for justice."--Publishers Weekly, Religion Bookline, June 30, 2010
"A lively, thoughtful and accessible rethinking of one of the most disturbing notions in Christian theology, the prospect of eternal damnation. Put this book on your 'must read' list." John D. Caputo, Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University
"What I tried to do in my book The Last Word and the Word After That, Sharon Baker has done in Razing Hell - with more brevity, more levity, and probably with more clarity and accessibility too. Highly recommended." Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity (brianmclaren.net)
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13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book,
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This review is from: Razing Hell: Rethinking Everything You've Been Taught About God's Wrath and Judgment (Paperback)
As a Christian for more than 30 years, I have always had misgivings about the doctrine of Hell that I had been taught in church. Would a truly loving God, full of grace, really send the majority of his beloved creation to an eternity of torment? Is this really what the Bible teaches? Sharon Baker hits these questions head on in a very accessible writing style while maintaining integrity of true scholarship. Her answers to these perplexing questions reveal the very heart of God, a heart of love for all the world while maintaining God's justice through restoration rather than vengeance. This is a beautiful book that has opened my eyes, restored my faith, and introduced me to a wonderful God I don't think I every really knew.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Razing Hell will raise hell,
By
This review is from: Razing Hell: Rethinking Everything You've Been Taught About God's Wrath and Judgment (Paperback)
New Evangelicalism is the old Liberalism. That's an observation, not a criticism. Razing Hell, Dr. Sharon Baker's newest book--a non-academic one--fits that observation. Along with N T Wright, Brian McLaren, Doug Frank (A Gentler God) and Rob Bell (Love Wins) Baker lays a foundation for a new concern for social justice, and a new emphasis on salvation for living, not just salvation as a fire escape from hell when dying. (175 ff.) Paul Tillich (The Shaking of the Foundations, Chapter 19: You Are Accepted) said the same thing six decades ago. Bravo!Baker has solved the problem of theodicy. (See especially 145-148.) That is a criticism. Leibniz, who coined the term "theodicy" 301 years ago brought into sharp focus the Gordian knot of how God's love, justice, and power relate, but the trilemma is as old as Job. God tells Job that God's ways are beyond knowing. The best that Leibniz can say is that we live in the "best of all possible worlds." Baker does Leibniz one better. She has cut the knot as follows: God is love, so God's justice must be restorative, not retributive. To quote Baker, she offers "a more hospitable hell" (164). A more hospitable hell?! Baker's hell actually looks like the Catholic purgatory, a tradition of "cleansing fire" which tradition extends at least 1500 years from Pope Gregory the Great to this past January 12th with Pope Benedict XVI, if not all the way back to I Corinthians 3:10-15. As C. S. Lewis says in The Great Divorce, the fire of hell and the fire of God's love are the same fire. How it feels depends on our reaction to it. (Baker inexplicably misses the opportunity to cite C. S. Lewis on this point.) Which brings me to two wonderful Biblical word studies in Baker's book, filled with insights and surprises. The first is a word study on "fire," including God's fiery messengers, the seraphim. We learn that "theion" means both "sulfur" (noun) and "divine" (adjective). The second wonderful word study is on "eternity." Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for an "eternity," suggesting that "eternity" means a long period of time-- long psychologically even if as short as three days. Baker has a high view of Scripture, as we would expect of an evangelical, new or otherwise. Bravo! Baker is not a universalist, but she offers the possibility that some souls will be annihilated "if they so choose" (166). She acknowledges that St. Paul speaks of believers' works being judged by fire in passages like I Corinthians 3:10-15. (She cites two other passages at 115.) but she sees that judgment as applying to both believer and unbeliever. Baker shares the Anabaptist vision for peace that is foundational to Messiah College where she professes theology. Anabaptists see everything through what Baker calls the "Jesus lens" because knowing Jesus is the best way to get to know about God, and the only way to know God. Baker cites such Anabaptists as John Howard Yoder, J. Denny Weaver, Eric Seibert, Tom Finger, and Perry Yoder. In contrast with a penal theory of Jesus' atonement, Baker holds to a more Anabaptist love theory of the atonement. She promises (200) to write at book length about this, as does one of her colleagues, philosophy professor Robin Collins. We'll see which one finishes first. Google < Robin Collins atonement > for details. Baker takes some things in the Bible as metaphor that I take as literal, and some things that I take as metaphorical that she takes as literal. It's challenging for me to point these out, because sometimes it's a matter of the tone she uses, so I urge you to check the context. I am sure that a more technical treatment of the subject would clarify these points. Here are a few examples. One, Jesus' way is narrow and few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). That's at the heart of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Baker's tone (148) seems to say "you don't really believe that, do you?" But those are Jesus' words! Two (145), Philippians 2:10-11 doesn't say "every knee will choose to bow and every tongue will choose to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Although the text is consistent with that sentence, it is also consistent with being made to bow against one's will. I don't see choice at either Isaiah 45:23 from which this hymn quotes, or Romans 14:11 which also quotes Isaiah. Three (159), Baker says "they had lived righteously in God's eyes before God instituted ritual sacrifice (Amos 5:21-24)." Set aside what I think is a citation of Amos editorially misplaced by one sentence, blood sacrifice goes back way before the giving of the law: Abel, Job, and Abram are three examples (Gen. 4:4, Job 1:5, Gen. 15:10). One should get one's Biblical doctrine from history and letters, not from poetry, parables, and apocalyptic literature. Baker gets doctrine from the latter, such as Psalms 37 and 40. (142, 159) Yes, she clearly calls them "images," not doctrines. And yes, linguist George Lakoff says that all speech is metaphor (Metaphors We Live By). Baker offers us an academic apparatus at the end, not interfering with the lively popular body of her text. I have only one little nit to pick about her sources. There is no evidence that Isaac Watts is the author of the stanza of his hymn that Baker quotes (9). Many hymns have had verses added by later writers. Ed Babinski's exhaustive search of Watts's hymns explains this well. Google < edward t babinski isaac watts > for discussion. Hedged with words like "suppose" and "two theories" (144-145), Dr. Baker invites us to open our minds to possibilities rather than proclamations. I admire her love of scholarship and her scholarship of love that have gone into this book. I predict that this book will help disaffected unChristians to return to Jesus, but it's going to raise hell with Calvinists. Notes: I am Sharon Baker's colleague at Messiah College. I am a Calvinist, of an irenic sort. I have offered Google searches since links outside of Amazon.com are not permitted in reviews here.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reframing Hell,
This review is from: Razing Hell: Rethinking Everything You've Been Taught About God's Wrath and Judgment (Paperback)
Professor Baker unpacks this great and liberating truth with articulation, grace and humor dealing with such issues as atonement, God's wrath and judgement, justice and forgiveness. She pulls back and takes a careful look at the big picture of scripture which is incredibly helpful. She has systematically reframed the concept of hell in a way that powerfully points to God's great Love and Grace for us and for creation. This is wonderfully liberating work---long overdue! A great gift to the whole Christian community as well as to many of us who have struggled with the traditional view of hell for years. This book is a must. Bravo! Charles R. Colwell
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