What is of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment? - E.B. Pusey
A Review by The Rev. Ben Jeffries, ’14
Late in 2019, David Bentley Hart caused quite a stir with his self-consciously belligerent That All Shall be Saved. Many fine scholars (Harrow, Pakaluk, McClymond) countered with orthodoxy, but to the disciple of the Tractarians, this all seemed like a bit of history repeating.
In 1878 "DBH'' was played by Canon Frederic Farrar, and the incendiary (ironic pun intended) book was Eternal Hope, which was the Victorian reprisal of the Universalist fantasy first floated by Origen so many years prior. Dr. Pusey, at this point in his old-age, with the loss of none of his intellectual powers, out of his love for souls, wrote What is of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment? This careful work still accomplishes chiefly three things:
First, it distinguishes what is de fide concerning hell, and therefore must be believed, if one calls oneself a Christian, from what is the accoutrement of later Christian devotional writing. Much (but not all) of what Farrar rejects (as with all self-styled Universalists) belongs to the latter category. This renders the traditional orthodox view more palatable, though it remains essentially bitter to the taste.
Second, Pusey investigates extant Jewish literature that provides a backdrop for our Lord's use of the word/concept of gehenna. This is the foundation of Farrar's argument (and indeed, on matters historical, DBH's as well), and Dr. Pusey is perfectly suited as an interlocutor due to his engagement with the Hebrew Bible and Jewish writings for over half a century as Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford.
Indeed, Chief Rabbi Nathan Adler (1803-1890) is reported to have said that only two Christians of the nineteenth century "thoroughly understood rabbinical literature: Delitzsch and Pusey." Pusey thus very capably dismantles the weaknesses of Farrar's argument about Jewish understandings of gehenna on the eve of Jesus' earthly ministry, and shows that, if anything, the trajectory -- per targumim Jonathan and Onkelos -- is toward the eternal hell that Jesus speaks of, not away from it.
Third, Pusey shows how nearly unanimous the Church Fathers were in their understanding of hell as eternal, painful, and conscious. The book ends with a long catena of quotes from martyrs who give their earnest testimony as with a single voice, "I would rather suffer all tortures now, than spend an eternity in hell." A collection of powerful quotations that over-awe the reader and make Pusey's case most-compelling.
What is of Faith? is a most excellent handbook for traversing current-day theological discussions about hell. It remains a sure and trusty guide for the present, even as it also documents the Tractarian past. A clear-eyed view of hell was Pusey's last publishing focus as he approached his own death in 1882, and we do well to keep that same clear vision for our own lives and ministries.
The Rev. Ben Jefferies, '14, is the first rector of The Good Shepherd Anglican Church, Opelika, Alabama, co-founder of the Cellar of St. Gambrinus and an honorary member of the Society of St. Moses the Jacked. He is married to Carrie, and they have three adorable daughters. His heroes are E.B. Pusey and The Rev. Lars Skoglund, ’14.