Open AccessDivine Energies: The Consuming Fire and the Beatific Vision
Author(s) -
A. G. Holdier
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
theologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.18
H-Index - 2
ISSN - 2593-0265
DOI - 10.14428/thl.v2i2.2233
Subject(s) - heaven , afterlife , faith , revelation , face (sociological concept) , punishment (psychology) , philosophy , aesthetics , epistemology , psychology , theology , social psychology , linguistics
I argue that a comprehensive ontological assessment of the beatific vision suggests that an individual’s experience of God’s face is not merely dependent on a revelation of the divine energies, but that it requires a particular mode of reception on the part of the blessed individual grounded in the reality of their faith; lacking faith, what would otherwise be experienced as the blessed vision of God is instead received as a torturous punishment. Therefore, I contend that the beatific vision is one of two possible phenomena resultant from seeing God’s face; the other is more commonly labeled “hellfire.” Consequently, the often-assumed bifurcated landscape of the Afterlife (into a Heaven suffused with God’s presence and a Hell deprived of it) must be reassessed.