"[Alfred the Great's] unique importance in the history of English letters comes from his conviction that a life without knowledge or reflection was unworthy of respect..."
Sir Frank Stenton
To read all the interview segments on this blog click here.
To download the entire interview as a pdf, click here.
A Facebook plugin has been imported into the end of this and every other interview segment to facilitate a user-friendly discussion. We want to here from you, so please don't hesitate to leave your thoughts or further questions.
Below is the fourth segment of the interview I did with my dad on his new e-book Hell and Beyond. For background about the book and this interview, see my earlier post 'Introducing Hell and Beyond.' To read all the interview segments that have been published so far, click here. To download the entire interview as a pdf, click here. A Facebook plugin has been imported into the end of this and every other interview segment to facilitate a user-friendly discussion. We want to here from you, so please don't hesitate to leave your thoughts or further questions.
RP 14: You say in your
Preface that “we do not and cannot know what the afterlife holds.” You also say
that the goal of your “imaginative supposals” is to “guard against…imbalance
toward error”. But if we cannot know what the afterlife holds, how can we know
what constitutes imbalance or error?
MP 14: That was perhaps a poor way of
stating it. It was my way of highlighting what I emphasized in the previous
answer, that taking one or another firm and dogmatic stand on any
Below is the third segment of the interview I did with my dad on his new e-book Hell and Beyond. For background about the book and this interview, see my earlier post 'Introducing Hell and Beyond.' To read all the interview segments that have been published so far, click here.
If you would like to contribute your own thoughts to
these questions, use the Facebook links at the end of this segment. This
is your chance to continue the discussion about God, the afterlife, and
the nature of reality, even if you haven't read the book.
RP 10: Let’s move from
the evolution of Lewis’s thought to the evolution of your own. How does this
project relate to, or bring together, themes you’ve previously explored, or
hinted at, in some of your earlier literary works?
Below is the second segment of the interview I did with my dad on his new e-book Hell and Beyond. For background about the book and this interview, see my earlier post 'Introducing Hell and Beyond.' To read all the interview segments that have been published so far, click here.
As I said before, one
of the original purposes of this interview was to generate a lot of
discussion. If you would like to contribute your own thoughts to
these questions, use the Facebook links at the end of this segment. This
is your chance to continue the discussion about God, the afterlife, and
the nature of reality, even if you haven't read the book.
RP 4: You are careful
to stress that this novel should not be taken literally, nor as a theological
statement on everything you believe about hell and God's judgment. But in
several places, the story seems to be directly critiquing traditional Christian
beliefs about hell. What would you say to critics who take the book to be a
theological treatise in the guise of fiction?
Below is the first segment of the much anticipated interview with my father on his new book Hell and Beyond.
For background about the book and this interview, see my earlier post 'Introducing Hell and Beyond.' To read the other interview segments that have been published so far, click here.
One of the original purposes of this interview was to generate a lot of discussion. After the first couple segments, we get into some pretty deep questions. If you would like to contribute your own thoughts to these questions, use the Facebook links at the end of this segment. This is your chance to continue the discussion about God, the afterlife, and the nature of reality, even if you haven't read the book.
My father, Michael Phillips, has just released a fantasy about the afterlife titled Hell and Beyond. Modeled after C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, but with more explicitly universalist motifs, the book is being heralded by many as the next step in the Love Wins phenomenon. (At the moment the book only exists in e-book format and can be purchased on Amazon Kindle or associated e-readers here.)
Does hell last forever? Is God or the devil in charge of hell? What is the lake of fire? What does it mean to be saved? These are just some of the many questions raised in Hell and Beyond.
My parents recently came to visit us, and while they were here I finished interviewing my father about the book, probing him about the book's implied theology and anticipating some of the objections he is likely to encounter from more traditionalist readers. Over the next few weeks I will be publishing our interview in separate segments in order to invite you, my readers, to participate in the ongoing discussion. A Facebook plugin will be imported into each interview segment to facilitate a user-friendly discussion. Meanwhile, the entire interview can be downloaded at the following link:
An important disclaimer for readers of this blog is that I do not agree with everything in Hell and Beyond, nor do I subscribe to the larger epistemological and hermeneutical architecture on which the book's conjectures ultimately depend. At the same time, I think the book raises some important questions about the afterlife, and I hope to use Hell and Beyond as a platform to generate a vibrant dialogue both in this blog and in the wider online community.
To read all the interview segments as they becoming available, and participate in the discussion, click on the following link:
Below is the fourth segment of the interview I did with my dad on his new e-book Hell and Beyond. For background about the book and this interview, see my earlier post 'Introducing Hell and Beyond.' To read all the interview segments that have been published so far, click here. To download the entire interview as a pdf, click here. A Facebook plugin has been imported into the end of this and every other interview segment to facilitate a user-friendly discussion. We want to here from you, so please don't hesitate to leave your thoughts or further questions.
My father, Michael Phillips, has just released a fantasy about the afterlife titled Hell and Beyond. Modeled after C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, but with more explicitly universalist motifs, the book is being heralded by many as the next step in the Love Wins phenomenon. (At the moment the book only exists in e-book format and can be purchased on Amazon Kindle or associated e-readers here.)