Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Criteria for an Adequate Solution
Theodicy vs. Defense

Part I: Developing the Problem
Chapter One: The Problem of Justice, The Problem of Love
The Problem of Justice
An Uncommon Solution: Shedd
The Popular Response: Aquinas
A Revised Version of the Response
Problems for the Revised Response
An Alternative Strategy: Denying that God Has Obligations
Remaining Options
The Problem of Love

Chapter Two: The Doxastic Problem
Preliminaries
Doxastic Problems
The Problem of Coercion
The Problem of Neighbor Love
The Problem of Worship
The Problem of Religious Motivation
The Problem of Despair
Addendum: Additional Problems for Calvinists and Other Theological Determinists
The Extreme Version of the Problem of Justice
The Extreme Version of the Problem of Love
Further Doxastic Problems
The Problem of Faith
The Problem of Hope

Part II: The Standard Options
Chapter Three: Traditionalism and Universalism
Traditionalism
Universalism
The Case for Universalism
Talbott on Love and Justice
Adams on Horrendous Evil and the Metaphysical "Size Gap"

Chapter Four: Providence, Freedom, and God's Creation of the Damned
The Free Will Argument against Universalism
Molinism and Universalism
Why Does God Create the Damned?
Molinist Anti-Universalism (M-AU)
A Nonstandard Account of Providence: McCann
Open Theist Anti-Universalism (OT-AU)
The Tradition Trilemma
Why Not Universalism?

Chapter Five: Annihilationism
Internal Disputes
Retributive Annihilationism
Non-Retributive Annihilationism
Natural Consequence Annihilationism (NCA)
Objections to NCA
Free Will Annihilationism (FWA)
Objections to FWA

Chapter Six: The Choice Model
The Direct Form
Help from Kierkegaard
The Role of Self-Deception
The Indirect Form
More Help from Kierkegaard
Why Not Annihilation?
Answer #1: Annihilation as Undesirable to the Damned
Answer #2: Annihilation as Indefeasibly Bad
Answer #3: The Soul as Inherently Indestructible
Answer #4: Humans as Essentially Immortal
In Defense of the Kierkegaardian Answer
Why Not the Choice Model?

Part III: The Divine Presence Model
Chapter Seven: Developing an Alternative to the Standard Options
Return to the Tripartite Structure
Introducing the Divine Presence Model
Help from Eastern Orthodoxy
Divine Omnipresence and Divine Hiddenness
Divine Hiddenness as Necessary for Human Freedom
Divine Hiddenness as a Natural Consequence of Sin
Hiddenness on the Divine Presence Model
The Phenomenology of Religious Experience and the Fear of the Lord
Retribution and Eternal Punishment

Chapter Eight: Objections, Replies, and Further Refinements
Addressing Standard and Shared Problems
Solutions in Common with the Choice Model
A (Possible) Point of Difference
Why Not Annihilation?
Why Not Eternal Divine Hiddenness?
Hybrid Views
Baker
Lewis
Kvanvig
Walls
Talbott
The Inescapable Love of God

Conclusion
Beyond the Day of Judgment
Appendix: Is the Divine Presence Model Biblical?
The Scriptural Record of Close Encounters with God
Christ the Way
Unveiling the Heart
The Face of God
Christ the Truth
Jesus and the Pharisees
Light and Darkness
Does Christ Come to Judge, or Not?
Christ the Life
The Curse of Death
The Destruction of Hades
The River of Fire and the River of Life

Bibliography
Index

About the Author

R. Zachary Manis (Ph.D., Baylor) is Professor of Philosophy at Southwest Baptist University. He is the co-author, with C. Stephen Evans, of Philosophy of Religion: Thinking About Faith, Second Edition. Manis lives in Bolivar, Missouri, with his wife Lisa and three children, Solomon, Nora, and Emmaline.

Reviews

A short review of this kind cannot do justice to the subtlety, breath, readability, insightfulness and rigor of Manis's Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God. Suffice it to say that no theologian or philosopher who is interested in the doctrine of hell, and paradoxically being spiritually nourished by reflecting upon it, can afford not to read this theologically sensitive and ecumenical manuscript.
*Jordan Wessling, Lindsey Wilson College, Columbia, International Journal of Systematic Theology*