Thinking Through the Problem of Hell: The Divine Presence Model

by R Zachary Manis

The Christian tradition teaches that some people will suffer eternally in hell. But why? Doesn’t an all-powerful God have the ability to prevent this from happening to anyone? Wouldn’t a perfectly good and loving God want to prevent it? And doesn’t the traditional teaching about hell function as a threat, coercing those who truly believe it? These questions convey the problem of hell, the most disturbing of all theological problems and one of the most difficult to solve.


Thinking Through the Problem of Hell is a rigorous yet accessible treatment of the issue. The solution that it develops, called the divine presence model, is that heaven and hell are the various ways that the righteous and the wicked experience the presence of God after the final judgment. In its fully developed form, the divine presence model addresses a whole host of theological the purpose of suffering, the meaning of salvation, the nature of free will and self-deception, and the reason that God remains partially hidden in this life, even to those who earnestly seek Him.


This is a book for those who refuse pat, simplistic answers to the hardest questions of the Christian faith.

Genres: Theology

238 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2024

Reviews

[Delong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in college an atheist once challenged me: "do you think I'm going to hell?"
It's clearly a no-win question for me.
If I say yes, he's going to be angry; if I say no, he's going to say I'm inconsistent with my faith.
He even said metaphorical interpretations of hell are a recent phenomenon, and fire and brimstone are the real Christian teaching.

My conversation with this atheist friend continued to trouble me years later, until I read Dr. Manis' book.
I realized that the atheist basically pointed out the Problem of Hell, a deep and complex philosophical problem that most Christians thought very little about.
From this book I learned several different views of hell, and the strengths and weaknesses of each interpretation.
Most importantly I learned the divine presence model that I never knew before, even though it has been an orthodox view.

This book offers many insights that help me conduct better conversations with my atheist friends. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to have invigorating discussions about this difficult topic. It's not just a philosophical book; it's highly relevant to my life as a Christian, and certainly to evangelism.

[Reid Parrish · Rating 3 out of 5]

“If you get to heaven…

and you don’t find me there…

you’ve gone to hell” - Emmanuel Makandiwa*


*this has nothing to do with this book. Televangelists be crazy.

Maybe I’ll post a full review someday. (Probably not).

All I’ll say is that I’ve always been dissatisfied with the traditional view of hell. It’s fed by Dante more than scripture. Manis does a great job of presenting an alternative model that is supported by scripture AND tradition. That’s not easy to do. Anyone who struggles with the traditional view of hell should read this. A good theological work that covers more than hell.

I’m still dissatisfied with how quickly he writes off annihilationism. He simply says “this is too far from church tradition to be worth considering.” However I think there are offshoots (e.g. conditionalism) that are upheld by scripture and tradition, and even fit into the Divine Presence model.

[Landon Loftin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it to be an excellent distillation of his earlier book. Carefully reasoned and very accessible.

[David Fry · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read on the topic. This is after reading more than 50 books on the heaven and hell.

[Brett Vanderzee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally good. Worthy of consideration.