The Presence of God is the Orthodox's Hell

Over the last couple of days I've been writing about the traditional view of hell and how it now seems to be the norm to think of hell as separation from God rather than a blazing inferno. A friend of mine had posted a link to my blog on facebook and a friend of her's shared a link in the comments about the Orthodox Church's view of hell and how it stands in stark contrast to this notion of separation.

I personally really like the Orthodox church's take on a lot of issues. Although I don't always agree with everything exclusively, I do think that most of the time their perspective is insightful and near the heart of an issue if not its solution. Essentially the Orthodox's position is that hell is your experience or perception of the presence of God.  They serve as a good commentary because, for them, the notion that one can be separated from God's presence is absurd since God is everywhere. You can read the entire article, but here are a few quotes and some reflections:

"Paradise and hell are not two different places. Such an idea is an idolatrous concept. Rather they signify two different conditions [ways or states of being], which originate from the same uncreated source, and are perceived by man as two, differing experiences. More precisely, they are the same experience, except that they are perceived differently by man, depending on his internal state."

"Consequently, paradise and hell are not a reward or a punishment (condemnation), but the way that we individually experience the sight of Christ, depending on the condition of our heart. God doesn't punish in essence, although, for educative purposes, the Scripture does mention punishment. The more spiritual that one becomes, the better he can comprehend the language of the Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Man's condition (clean-unclean, repentant-unrepentant) is the factor that determines the acceptance of the Light as "paradise" or "hell"." 

"The anthropological issue in Orthodoxy is [to provide] that man will eternally look upon Christ as paradise and not as hell; that man will partake of His heavenly and eternal "kingdom". This is where we see the difference between Christianity as Orthodoxy and the various other religions. The other religions promise a certain "blissful" state, even after death. Orthodoxy however is not a quest for bliss, but a cure from the illness of religion..."

The way the Orthodox understand salvation is a huge part of what is at work here. Salvation for them is being healed from a condition. In their minds, the end goal of the Christian faith is for man to become god. Now before you cry 'blasphemy' it is important to understand their distinction between God's essence and energies. They do not think we become God in his essence. That is reserved for the Trinity. What they are saying is that we participate in the divine nature (as Peter put it) and are one with god as the father and son are one (as John put it). Through the indwelling of the holy spirit we are glorified and become more than human through our union with Christ. Luther had similar views as have many other major Christian leaders, the early church fathers, etc. Evangelicals tend to shy away from this to avoid confusion that we are gods like God is god, but this is our heritage and tradition not to mention the very words of Scripture.

"The experience of paradise or hell is beyond words or the senses. It is an uncreated reality, and not a created one. The Latins invented the myth that paradise and hell are both created realities. It is a myth that the damned will not be able to look upon God; just as the "absence of God" is equally a myth."

"...there is no such thing as "God's absence," only His presence."

 I think that this last quote is a huge challenge to the notion of hell as separation. I mentioned how evangelicals avoid the language of becoming like god (or gods or participation with the divine or the term 'theosis') because they don't want to create confusion. However , in trying to articulate what someone has quipped "mere separationism", it becomes difficult to reconcile with God's omnipresence. If God is everywhere, how can he not be in hell? Articulating a final state that involves God not being somewhere rather than being 'all in all' breeds confusion.

"More often than not, we strive to secure a place in "paradise", instead of striving to be healed. "

"Orthodoxy doesn't make any promises to send mankind to any sort of paradise or hell; but it does have the power...to prepare man, so that he may forever look upon the Uncreated Grace and the Kingdom of Christ as Paradise, and not as Hell."