Relationship with God Does Not End with Death

US Theologian Questions the Existence of Hell

"Hell, if it exists, is temporal, not eternal," claimed Rev. Dr Kristin Johnston Largen, associate professor for systematic theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA. "If Christ has gone even there, to the deepest pit of existence,what of 'hell' is left?" Johnston Largen challenged 120theologians on 28 March at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)consultation "Theology in the Lives of Lutheran Churches -Transformative Perspectives and Practices."

In her presentation, Johnston Largen explored the relationship between creation and salvation, and the ramifications of that relationship for Christian eschatological thinking, particularly as it pertains to non-Christians. She summed up her position in three central affirmations: "First, God is the creator of all;second, God is in a loving relationship with all; and third, that relationship does not end at death."

Ultimately, she claimed,"the very fact of God’s relationship with creation issalvific." "In Christ, God is conjoining all creatures and takes part in the very biological tissue of creation," underlined Dr. NielsHenrik Gregersen from the Theological Faculty of Copenhagen University, Denmark.

"God becomes Jesus, and in him God becomes human, sparrow, and grass, soil." Moreover, Gregersen declared,the most high and the very lowest are united in the process of incarnation that "signifies coming-into-flesh, so that God the creator, and the world of the flesh are conjoined in Jesus Christ." In an interactive plenary session on "Integrative theological Formation" Rev. Dr Norma Cook Everist from Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, USA, asserted that "transformative theology connects not only with our minds, but also with our hands and hearts."

Cook Everist facilitated the participants' work in small discussion groups to identify existential issues in their own churches and do theology inductively beginning with daily life."Using integrative approaches means not that we need specific theological disciplines less but that we need them more."

These disciplines ought to constantly interact and thus "mutually inform and transform people in our theological schools and churches," she stated. Over 120 theologians from more than 30 countries are taking part in the consultation "Theology in the Life of Lutheran Churches: Transformative Perspectives and Practices Today" in Augsburg,Germany, under the auspices of the LWF Department for Theology and Studies (DTS).

The 25 to 31 March meeting, held in collaboration with the Institute of Protestant Theology of the University of Augsburg, is the culmination of the DTS study program "Theology in the Life of the Church," which has been on going since 2004.