Fate of the unlearned
Encyclopedia
The fate of the unlearned (or destiny of the unevangelized) is an eschatological question about the ultimate destiny of people who have not been exposed to a particular theology
or doctrine and thus have no opportunity to embrace it. The question is whether those who never hear of requirements issued through divine revelation
s will be punished for failure to abide by those requirements.
It is sometimes addressed in combination with the similar question of the fate of the unbeliever. Differing faith traditions have different responses to the question; in Christianity
the fate of the unlearned is related to the question of Original sin
. As some suggest that rigid readings of religious texts require harsh punishment for those who have never heard of that religion, it is sometimes raised as an argument against the existence of God
, and is generally accepted to be an extension or sub-section of The Problem of Evil.
is generally necessary for salvation.
However, Catholic teaching also allows for the salvation of one with genuine ignorance of Christian teaching, who "seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it." Unbaptized catechumens are saved, in the Catholic view, because the desire to receive the sacrament of baptism, together with sincere repentance for one's sins, assures salvation. In the case of the righteous unlearned, "It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity" and, by extension, they will attain salvation.
Dante attempted to answer this question with the first level of Hell in the Divine Comedy, where the virtuous pagans live. They are described as those who lived before the time of Jesus and therefore unable to enter Purgatory
or Heaven. Amongst them is Virgil
, Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory.
belief, the issue centers on whether those who have not heard the Gospel
receive salvation or damnation.
Under a strict exclusivist position, those who died without an opportunity to learn of or understand the Christian message are destined to Hell, which may include those who lived before Jesus' time, those who lived in remote places and never learned of it, those who die in infancy or before birth, and the mentally disabled. Some Protestants agree with Augustine
that people in these categories will be damned to Hell for original sin
, whereas others argue that God needs no human help in delivering salvation. The French reformer John Calvin
, writing his Institutes of the Christian Religion
at the time of the Reformation
, wrote "beyond the pale of the Church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for" [IV.i.iv]. Calvin wrote also that "those to whom he is a Father, the Church must also be a mother," echoing the words of the originator of the Latin phrase himself, Cyprian
: "He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother." The idea is further affirmed in the Puritan
, Anglican Westminster Confession of Faith
of 1647 that "the visible Church ... is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation."
Despite this, it is not necessarily a commonly held belief within modern Protestantism, especially Evangelicalism
and those denominations which believe in the autonomy of the local church. The dogma is related to the universal Protestant dogma that the church is the body of all believers and debates within Protestantism usually centre on the meaning of "church" (ecclesiam) and "apart" (extra). Theologian John Sanders noted that "Although God's decision on this issue is final, the church has never agreed on the nature of that decision." Sanders and Clark Pinnock propose a position known as "inclusivism
", under which many of the unevangelized will receive salvation because they have faith in God as they know him (as Hindus or Muslims, for example), and they are saved by Christ's work.
, teaches that those who die without knowledge of LDS theology will have the opportunity to receive a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the spirit world. In Mormon belief, only "sons of perdition
" who chose to reject Jesus are destined for Hell, a form of universalism that assisted the early rise of the Mormon faith. Latter-day Saints believe that God has provided a way so that all of mankind will have an opportunity to hear the message of the gospel, and can thereby choose whether to accept it or not. Latter-day Saints cite biblical passages found in 1 Peter.
Since Latter-day Saints believe that all must receive the proper ordinances in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, today members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participate in a massive genealogical effort to compile names of their kindred dead, and then to perform sacred ordinances, such as baptism, in behalf and as proxies for their deceased ancestors in sacred temples, which are found throughout the world.
, as different authorities within the faith have issued different theories as to the destiny of those who do not know of Muhammad
or Allah
. In contrast to Christianity, Islam generally rejects the possibility that those who have never heard of the revelations embodied in the Qur'an
might automatically merit punishment.
According to Qur'an, the basic criteria for salvation
in afterlife
are the belief in one God
, Last Judgment
, acceptance and obedience of what is in the Qur'an and ordained by the prophet and good deeds. As the Qur'an states:
The Qur'an also asserts that those who reject the Messengers
of God with their best knowledge are damned in afterlife and if they reject in front of the Messenger of God, then they also face dreadful fate in this world and in afterlife (see Itmam al-hujjah). Conversely, a person who discovers monotheism without having been reached by a messenger is called Hanif
. But it should be remembered, Islam also states every community in the world, no matter how isolated, had been sent at least one prophet to teach them. So, this belief limits the possibility of people never heard of God's message. Prophet Ibrahim(Abraham)'s story also indicates every man is capable of finding one true God by his own common sense.
To reduce the broad scope of the Islamic tradition to a single answer, however, would be as problematic as to do the same for Christianity – different Muslims have answered this question in different ways at different times. Some Muslims have maintained – and still do – that paradise is only available to those who accept Islam as is suggested by some verses of the Qur'an, and this is a very commonly held view. It is also believed that following religions such as Judaism or Christianity is acceptable only prior to the advent of Islam and only in their original unaltered form in the way they were revealed to their messengers without any distortion or idolatry like present day Christianity.
One view is that "A person who has never heard of Islam or the Prophet... and who has never heard the message in its correct and true form, will not be punished by Allah if he dies in a state of disbelief. If it were asked what his fate will be, the answer will be that Allah will test him on the Day of Resurrection: if he obeys, he will enter Paradise and if he disobeys he will enter Hell." But, even those who have not heard the message will be held to some standard of conduct: "Because everyone is a born Muslim, those who have never heard of Islam are only responsible for not doing what common sense tells him or her to do. Those who knowingly violate God's laws will be punished for their wrongdoing." Under this view, those who have not heard the message are "excused," and Allah "rewards such people for the good they have done, and they enjoy the blessings of Paradise." A similar view is that "if such people find the Creator through the use of reason, even though they do not know His Names or Attributes, they will be saved. If they do not do this, they will not be saved."
Some would extend this mercy to the incompetently evangelized, that is, to people "who have been reached by the name of Muhammad but who have been given a false account," and for whom it is then said that they "have not rejected true Islam but only a distorted version of it and they will therefore be judged in the same category as those people who never heard of Islam in the first place."
The more complicated question of what will happen, for example, to people of religions other than Judaism and Christianity is significantly more controversial. There is particularly controversy over the meaning of the word "Sabians
". The long presence of Islam in South Asia, however, has engendered many debates about the status of Hindus, which has run the whole gamut between a more standard dismissal of Hinduism as shirk
, or polytheism, to some Muslims, such as Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan
even going so far as to recognize Rama and Krishna as Prophets of Islam not explicitly mentioned in Muslim scripture – thereby making Hindus equivalent to Christians or Jews.
, Pandeism
, and Pantheism
, which do not include any revelation or require obedience to revealed rules. In Deism, some believe that individuals will be judged by one's obedience to natural laws of right and wrong to be obtained by the exercise of reason alone, and so, failure to exercise reason in the effort to make this determination is itself the cause for punishment.
In Buddhism
, all souls, whether evangelized or not, will continue to be reincarnated until they have achieved Nirvana. However, Buddhist scholars have said that "any suggestion that enlightenment is immediately available to anyone who really wants it, even if he has never heard of Buddhism, is likely to be received with incredulity or even resentment."
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
or doctrine and thus have no opportunity to embrace it. The question is whether those who never hear of requirements issued through divine revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
s will be punished for failure to abide by those requirements.
It is sometimes addressed in combination with the similar question of the fate of the unbeliever. Differing faith traditions have different responses to the question; in Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
the fate of the unlearned is related to the question of Original sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
. As some suggest that rigid readings of religious texts require harsh punishment for those who have never heard of that religion, it is sometimes raised as an argument against the existence of God
Existence of God
Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others. In philosophical terms, arguments for and against the existence of God involve primarily the sub-disciplines of epistemology and ontology , but also of the theory of value, since...
, and is generally accepted to be an extension or sub-section of The Problem of Evil.
Catholic tradition
The Catholic Church believes that Jesus Christ attained salvation "for all men" by his death on the cross. It teaches that salvation comes from "God alone," but that the Church is the "mother" and "teacher" of the faithful. Specifically, it teaches that Christian baptismBaptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
is generally necessary for salvation.
However, Catholic teaching also allows for the salvation of one with genuine ignorance of Christian teaching, who "seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it." Unbaptized catechumens are saved, in the Catholic view, because the desire to receive the sacrament of baptism, together with sincere repentance for one's sins, assures salvation. In the case of the righteous unlearned, "It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity" and, by extension, they will attain salvation.
Dante attempted to answer this question with the first level of Hell in the Divine Comedy, where the virtuous pagans live. They are described as those who lived before the time of Jesus and therefore unable to enter Purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
or Heaven. Amongst them is Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory.
Protestant tradition
In Christian evangelicalEvangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
belief, the issue centers on whether those who have not heard the Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
receive salvation or damnation.
Under a strict exclusivist position, those who died without an opportunity to learn of or understand the Christian message are destined to Hell, which may include those who lived before Jesus' time, those who lived in remote places and never learned of it, those who die in infancy or before birth, and the mentally disabled. Some Protestants agree with Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
that people in these categories will be damned to Hell for original sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
, whereas others argue that God needs no human help in delivering salvation. The French reformer John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
, writing his Institutes of the Christian Religion
Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvin's seminal work on Protestant systematic theology...
at the time of the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, wrote "beyond the pale of the Church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for" [IV.i.iv]. Calvin wrote also that "those to whom he is a Father, the Church must also be a mother," echoing the words of the originator of the Latin phrase himself, Cyprian
Cyprian
Cyprian was bishop of Carthage and an important Early Christian writer, many of whose Latin works are extant. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education...
: "He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother." The idea is further affirmed in the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
, Anglican Westminster Confession of Faith
Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith, in the Calvinist theological tradition. Although drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly, largely of the Church of England, it became and remains the 'subordinate standard' of doctrine in the Church of Scotland, and has been...
of 1647 that "the visible Church ... is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation."
Despite this, it is not necessarily a commonly held belief within modern Protestantism, especially Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
and those denominations which believe in the autonomy of the local church. The dogma is related to the universal Protestant dogma that the church is the body of all believers and debates within Protestantism usually centre on the meaning of "church" (ecclesiam) and "apart" (extra). Theologian John Sanders noted that "Although God's decision on this issue is final, the church has never agreed on the nature of that decision." Sanders and Clark Pinnock propose a position known as "inclusivism
Inclusivism
Inclusivism, one of several approaches to understanding the relationship between religions, asserts that while one set of beliefs is absolutely true, other sets of beliefs are at least partially true. It stands in contrast to exclusivism, which asserts that only one way is true and all others are...
", under which many of the unevangelized will receive salvation because they have faith in God as they know him (as Hindus or Muslims, for example), and they are saved by Christ's work.
Latter-day Saint tradition
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or MormonismMormonism
Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...
, teaches that those who die without knowledge of LDS theology will have the opportunity to receive a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the spirit world. In Mormon belief, only "sons of perdition
Son of perdition (Mormonism)
Son of perdition is a phrase used in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and by Mormon fundamentalists to describe a person who will not take part in the glory of God in the afterlife...
" who chose to reject Jesus are destined for Hell, a form of universalism that assisted the early rise of the Mormon faith. Latter-day Saints believe that God has provided a way so that all of mankind will have an opportunity to hear the message of the gospel, and can thereby choose whether to accept it or not. Latter-day Saints cite biblical passages found in 1 Peter.
- 1 Peter 3:
- 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
- 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
- 1 Peter 4:
- 6 For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Since Latter-day Saints believe that all must receive the proper ordinances in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, today members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participate in a massive genealogical effort to compile names of their kindred dead, and then to perform sacred ordinances, such as baptism, in behalf and as proxies for their deceased ancestors in sacred temples, which are found throughout the world.
- "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" — 1 Corinthians 15:29
Islam
A similar issue exists in IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, as different authorities within the faith have issued different theories as to the destiny of those who do not know of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
or Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
. In contrast to Christianity, Islam generally rejects the possibility that those who have never heard of the revelations embodied in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
might automatically merit punishment.
According to Qur'an, the basic criteria for salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
in afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
are the belief in one God
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
, Last Judgment
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
, acceptance and obedience of what is in the Qur'an and ordained by the prophet and good deeds. As the Qur'an states:
The Qur'an also asserts that those who reject the Messengers
Prophets of Islam
Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
of God with their best knowledge are damned in afterlife and if they reject in front of the Messenger of God, then they also face dreadful fate in this world and in afterlife (see Itmam al-hujjah). Conversely, a person who discovers monotheism without having been reached by a messenger is called Hanif
Hanif
Hanif is a term that refers to those who maintain the pure monothestic Muslim beliefs of the patriarch Ibrahim. More specifically, in Islamic thought it refers to the people during the period known as the Age of Ignorance, who were seen to have rejected idolatry and retained some or all of the...
. But it should be remembered, Islam also states every community in the world, no matter how isolated, had been sent at least one prophet to teach them. So, this belief limits the possibility of people never heard of God's message. Prophet Ibrahim(Abraham)'s story also indicates every man is capable of finding one true God by his own common sense.
To reduce the broad scope of the Islamic tradition to a single answer, however, would be as problematic as to do the same for Christianity – different Muslims have answered this question in different ways at different times. Some Muslims have maintained – and still do – that paradise is only available to those who accept Islam as is suggested by some verses of the Qur'an, and this is a very commonly held view. It is also believed that following religions such as Judaism or Christianity is acceptable only prior to the advent of Islam and only in their original unaltered form in the way they were revealed to their messengers without any distortion or idolatry like present day Christianity.
One view is that "A person who has never heard of Islam or the Prophet... and who has never heard the message in its correct and true form, will not be punished by Allah if he dies in a state of disbelief. If it were asked what his fate will be, the answer will be that Allah will test him on the Day of Resurrection: if he obeys, he will enter Paradise and if he disobeys he will enter Hell." But, even those who have not heard the message will be held to some standard of conduct: "Because everyone is a born Muslim, those who have never heard of Islam are only responsible for not doing what common sense tells him or her to do. Those who knowingly violate God's laws will be punished for their wrongdoing." Under this view, those who have not heard the message are "excused," and Allah "rewards such people for the good they have done, and they enjoy the blessings of Paradise." A similar view is that "if such people find the Creator through the use of reason, even though they do not know His Names or Attributes, they will be saved. If they do not do this, they will not be saved."
Some would extend this mercy to the incompetently evangelized, that is, to people "who have been reached by the name of Muhammad but who have been given a false account," and for whom it is then said that they "have not rejected true Islam but only a distorted version of it and they will therefore be judged in the same category as those people who never heard of Islam in the first place."
The more complicated question of what will happen, for example, to people of religions other than Judaism and Christianity is significantly more controversial. There is particularly controversy over the meaning of the word "Sabians
Sabians
The Sabians of Middle Eastern tradition were a monotheistic Abrahamic religious group mentioned three times in the Quran: "the Jews, the Sabians, and the Christians." In the Hadith they are nothing but converts to Islam, while their identity in later Islamic literature became a matter of...
". The long presence of Islam in South Asia, however, has engendered many debates about the status of Hindus, which has run the whole gamut between a more standard dismissal of Hinduism as shirk
Shirk (polytheism)
In Islam, shirk is the sin of idolatry or polytheism. i.e. the deification or worship of anyone or anything other than the singular God, or more literally the establishment of "partners" placed beside God...
, or polytheism, to some Muslims, such as Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan
Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan
Mirzā Mazhar Jān-i Jānān , also known by his laqab Shamsuddīn Habībullāh , was a renowned Naqshbandī Sufi poet of Dehli, distinguished as one the "four pillars of Urdu poetry." He was also known to his contemporaries as the sunnītarāsh, "Sunnicizer", for his absolute, unflinching commitment to and...
even going so far as to recognize Rama and Krishna as Prophets of Islam not explicitly mentioned in Muslim scripture – thereby making Hindus equivalent to Christians or Jews.
Non-theistic traditions
The problem of the unevangelized does not arise in religious or spiritual traditions such as DeismDeism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
, Pandeism
Pandeism
Pandeism or Pan-Deism , is a term describing beliefs incorporating or mixing logically reconcilable elements of pantheism and deism Pandeism or Pan-Deism (from and meaning "God" in the sense of deism), is a term describing beliefs incorporating or mixing logically reconcilable elements of...
, and Pantheism
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
, which do not include any revelation or require obedience to revealed rules. In Deism, some believe that individuals will be judged by one's obedience to natural laws of right and wrong to be obtained by the exercise of reason alone, and so, failure to exercise reason in the effort to make this determination is itself the cause for punishment.
In Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, all souls, whether evangelized or not, will continue to be reincarnated until they have achieved Nirvana. However, Buddhist scholars have said that "any suggestion that enlightenment is immediately available to anyone who really wants it, even if he has never heard of Buddhism, is likely to be received with incredulity or even resentment."
See also
- 10/40 Window10/40 WindowThe 10/40 Window is a term coined by Christian missionary strategist Luis Bush in 1990 to refer those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least...
- Harrowing of HellHarrowing of HellThe Harrowing of Hell is a doctrine in Christian theology referenced in the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed that states that Jesus Christ "descended into Hell"...
- Hell in Christian beliefsHell in Christian beliefsChristian views on Hell vary, but in general traditionally agree that hell is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved suffer the consequences of sin....
- Invincible errorInvincible errorAn invincible error is, in Christian philosophy, a normally sinful action which is not considered sinful because it was committed through blameless ignorance that one's actions were harmful or otherwise prohibited....
- JahannamJahannamJahannam is the Arabic language equivalent to Hell. The term comes from the Greek Gehenna, itself derived from the Hebrew geographical name for the Valley of Hinnom.-Jahannam in the Qur'an:...
(Hell in Islam) - LimboLimboIn the theology of the Catholic Church, Limbo is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the damned. Limbo is not an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other...
- MolinismMolinismMolinism, named after 16th Century Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, is a religious doctrine which attempts to reconcile the providence of God with human free will. William Lane Craig is probably its best known advocate today, though other important Molinists include Alfred Freddoso, Alvin...
- Universal opportunity
- Vincible ignoranceVincible ignoranceVincible ignorance is, in Catholic ethics, a moral or doctrinal matter that could have been removed by diligence reasonable to the circumstances. It contrasts with invincible ignorance, which can not be removed at all, or only by supererogatory efforts Vincible ignorance is, in Catholic ethics, a...
- Virtuous paganVirtuous paganVirtuous paganism is a concept in Christian theology analogous to that of the "righteous gentile" in Judaism. It addressed the problem of pagans who were never evangelized and consequently during their lifetime had no opportunity to recognize Christ, but nevertheless led virtuous lives, so that it...