Interfaith Group

Since such explanations would be long and rather technical in parts. Briefly, both heaven and hell are outside time, in an eternal "now" (that's not a good way to put it, but it's as close as I can come in a single sentence).

I said that I have been re-reading Dante. Dante makes it quite clear that each person is given a choice right at the end: To put God first or to put himself or herself first. God will ratify whichever choice is made. God does not send anyone to hell, they send themselves. As C. S. Lewis put it, "All who are in hell, choose it." One of the medieval theologians -- I want to say Bernard of Clairvaux or Catherine of Sienna, but I won't swear to either one -- said that the souls after death have the light of God shining on them. Those who love God bathe in the light, those who do not are burned by it.