Starbuck asked what happened to the Christian doctrine of hellfire. Here’s a short response.

There is definitely a hell. No one on earth knows exactly what it will be like. The Bible refers to it in terms of “Gehenna” (a burning garbage dump outside the walls of Jerusalem), a lake of fire, and “outer darkness, where men weep and gnash their teeth.” All of these are metaphors, I think, though the last of those is probably very descriptive.

For centuries Christian imagery of hell …