Date

12-16-2025

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics (MA)

Chair

Jonathan R. Pruitt

Keywords

Christian Apologetics, C. S. Lewis, Hell, Divine Justice, Free Will, Eternal Punishment

Disciplines

Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

The realization that God is all-loving when faced with the reality of hell has been a longstanding conflict in debates surrounding the doctrine of hell. This thesis will explore how Christian and skeptics both struggle with the conflict that arises between the belief in all-loving God and the existence of hell by focusing on arguments developed by C. S. Lewis. Using a collection of his literary works, such as The Problem of Pain, The Great Divorce, and Mere Christianity, the thesis will investigate Lewis’s attempts to reconcile God’s love with His justice, human free will and the reality of eternal condemnation. Rather than seeing hell as a cruel sentence invoked by an unfeeling God, Lewis builds the case that hell is the natural consequence of the individual freely rejecting God. This study will evaluate these claims while addressing the critiques that arise from the discussion by engaging with Lewis’s literature and the published works of academic scholars. In the end, the dilemma that drives the broader conversation on whether God is all-loving or if something is wrong with the doctrine of hell will be addressed. This thesis argues that C. S. Lewis offers a logical and sufficient apologetic response to the perceived tension between divine love and eternal punishment by reconciling the two through demonstrating that hell is ultimately the result of free will, and love and justice are inseparable aspects of God’s nature.

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