‘How to Avoid Hell’ Book Research Update

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that I was beginning research for a new book. The book will explore approaches to hell in the three major Abrahamic religions (that is, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). My motivation behind the book stems from my personal interest in understanding Scriptural teaching on hell more deeply, as I believe it’s probably the most important subject for anyone who believes in God.

I shared in this post how I was exploring the Hadith literature in Islam. Unfortunately, the six books I borrowed from the philosophy and theology library I joined recently weren’t particularly helpful, although one of the books — The Wiley Blackwell Concise Companion to the Hadith — did provide some useful insights. In any case, I have decided that the book I am writing will focus almost entirely on sacred Scripture. I will explore insights on hell in the Hadith literature as well, but my focus when it comes to Islam will mostly be on the text of the Qur’an.

As part of my research into Christian views of hell I have been exploring Universalism, which is the view that eventually all human beings will be saved, although some may suffer in hell first. I have a few books lined up to read on the subject. I have read a couple of books about Annihilationism, which is the view that those who suffer in hell will have their personhood annihilated once they have paid the penalty for unforgiven sins.

Today I read an interesting article about the subject of hell in Judaism. It’s fascinating to me that hell is rarely discussed in the Torah, and I am having to look to the Talmud, which is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, in order to deepen my understanding of the subject. I have reserved six books about Jewish theology from the library, and I was hoping to pick these up before Christmas, but circumstances have meant I’ve been unable to take the trip into central London to collect the books. This is frustrating as I would have liked to use the Christmas holidays to explore these books. I will have to be patient and collect them early in the new year.

All in all, I’m excited to continue my research for this new book. Some of you may have seen I’ve added a preliminary cover for the book to my books page which I can use when I make the book available for preorder, which will probably be in a few months time, God willing. I am learning so much through my research for this book — I’m so glad to have an opportunity to explore the subject of hell further and I hope to produce a final product that will be interesting and insightful to readers of this blog.

In the meantime, if you have any recommendations for books related to the subject of hell, feel free to comment or drop me an email and I’ll be happy to investigate. I hope you are doing well and are enjoying preparing for the Christmas holidays.

Just as a reminder, you can currently read my book God’s Grand Game for free as an eBook. For full details, visit the Books page. You can subscribe to this blog for further updates related to my existing and work in progress books. God bless you and peace be with you.