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The Secularization of Hell

The Secularization of Hell

Last updated on: October 23, 2026 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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The Secularization of Hell 2026-10-17T20:34:53-04:00 Gene Veith

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We don’t hear much about Hell anymore. Even fundamentalist preachers and confessional pastors tend to shy away from it. Understandably so. The prospect of eternal punishment is just too horrible to contempoat. Doesn’t mean it isn’t true, though.

I came across a remarkable article in Comment by Matthew Kaemingk, a Christian theologian, and Shadi Hamid, a Muslim political scientist, entitled The Political Case for Hell, with the deck, “Why politics is better off if damnation is religion’s job.” It’s drawn from their new book Can Religion Save Democracy?: How More Faith–Not Less–Can Heal Our Public Life.

They are not arguing that we need the belief in Hell to keep everybody in line. They do acknowledge the abuses of this teaching when religious leaders use it to manipulate their adherents and when religion is reduced to fear. They are not even arguing for the existence of Hell, though they both say that they believe in that teaching from their respective religious traditions.

They argue that the widespread decline in the belief in Hell has resulted in the secularization of Hell. “First, modern citizens reject hell—a distant place of wrath, judgment, and alienation—in the hopes of creating peace,” they observe. “Second, they discover that contemporary society has become a place where citizens visit wrath, judgment, and alienation on one another.”

This observation from Kaemingk and Hamid reminds me of my recent post about Generation Z’s yearning for evildoers to be punished:

Human beings not only thirst for justice; they want to see it happen. There is something in us that wants to take in the spectacle of bad guys “getting theirs.” Our television sets are filled with true-crime shows, celebrity scandals, and legal dramas. We scroll through social media with a sort of delighted horror as bad guys are caught and punishment is served. We want armies to send a message. We want more than victory; we want shock and awe. It is not enough to bring force. We have to make a show of force. This is what it means to secularize the spectacle of hell. We no longer believe that evildoers go to hell, so we’re forced to bring it to them.

This mindset is not conducive to peace, social harmony, or political compromise:

As we scan the current political discourse on the right and the left, it is clear that our patience for political dialogue, negotiation, and due process is waning. There is a spirit growing within the West that demands a solution to human evil that is immediate and final. A distant deity does not hold the keys to hell; we do.

This contrasts with the medieval–or, I would say, the traditional Christian– view of Hell:

Medieval hell is different. It might be gruesome, but it’s both delayed and distant. Medieval hell affords both the offender and the offended a measure of time and space—a critical opportunity for confession, transformation, and reconciliation. As long as the offender has breath, they still have a chance to be transformed and redeemed. The door to hell is left open a crack. Hell is not here. It is not now. There is still time for persuasion.

In contrast, in secularized Hell, there is no room for forgiveness, grace, or conversion. Kaemingk and Hamid note how Jesus speaks of Hell, which he does with some frequency:

But there’s an even more profound difference at work here—something that emerges when we look closely at the ancient words that Jesus uses when he talks about hell. Jesus never uses hell as a weapon to judge outsiders. He never says, “Here is why those people—the ones you don’t like—are going to hell.” Instead, Jesus uses hell as a mirror. When he talks about hell, he’s talking about you. Where might you go when you die? What eternal destiny do you deserve? What path are you on? Jesus wants his audience to think primarily about their own sin, not the sins of others. If we actually read the words of Jesus, they do not inspire us to hope for hell for other people. They cause us to look for the signs of hell within ourselves.

Hell, they point out, is egalitarian. Rich or poor, black or white, king or peasant–everyone is on an equal footing before the judgment throne of God. Unlike here on earth, the wealthy can’t buy their way out and the powerful can’t bully their way out of consequences for what they have done.:

“The apparent lack of just deserts for the powerful has political consequences,” Kaemingk and Hamid say. “It feeds populist rage and democratic cynicism. In this context, the concept of ultimate justice, of a future hell, serves as a crucial safety valve.”I would add that the fear of Hell can constrain what the rich and powerful–as well as other potential evildoers– might otherwise do.

Kaemingk and Hamid cite the dangers of political movements that promise heaven on earth, that use the rhetoric of “overcoming evil” and achieving perfection. Inevitably, such messianic politics ends up imposing Hell on opponents, disfavored groups, and dissidents. Conversely,

If you take hell seriously, it can lift a critical burden from your politics. Suddenly, the next election does not need to fulfill all your hopes and dreams. It does not need to make your country great again. It does not need to bring all evildoers to account. It does not need to dispense perfect justice, because that justice is coming from elsewhere. It is not yours, and it is not today. But it will come soon enough.

Illustration: Tyrants and the Violent punished in the River of Boiling Blood, in Dante’s Inferno, Circle 7, Canto 12, by Stradanus (1587) via Wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2981896

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