Chapter Five: How Can A Loving God Send People to Hell? Summary and Analysis

A student in one of Keller's classes cited the Old Testament in which God ordered people to be slaughtered. Another student said she was disturbed by the doctrine of hell. The God described in the Bible, she said, was not a loving god. Pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," spoke with a group that was troubled by the belief that God consigns some people to eternal punishment otherwise known as Hell. Didn't his flock see the contradictory spirit of that belief?

Robert Bellah's, "Habits of the Heart" discusses the concept of individualism that is dominant in American culture. The book notes that 80 percent of Americans agree that each person needs to arrive at his own truth. C. S...