Augustinian Topics on Life

It's virtually impossible these days to switch on a TV or radio, surf the Web or read a newspaper without finding at least one pundit or politician bemoaning the "moral decay" afflicting the world, the country or an opposition political party. End-of-the-century philosophies are booming with dire tomes on chaos in the house and barbarians at the gate. Actually, this sort of hysteria appears with the end of every epoch. Change is frightening, and people feel powerless. No one knew this experience better than St. Augustine of Hippo, who lived through the death throes of the Roman Empire.

Last summer, Pope John Paul II threw a figurative pail of cold water on the popular image of hell as a place of unending flame. His statement followed an article on the subject in La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit magazine believed to have close ties to the Vatican. The article said that hell is not a place but a state of being in which a soul suffers from being deprived of God for all time.