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ornamental line

False Teachers

"'I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else's,
but behind all of them, there's only one truth
and that is that there's no truth'" (93).
Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952)


Points for Reflection

The Bible: 2 Peter 2:1-22

  1. Down what paths does Peter anticipate "false teachers" will lead others (v.1-3)?
  2. Why might Peter mention the fall of angels--famously dramatized in the opening of John Milton's Paradise (1667)-- alongside the examples of others who turn away from righteousness (v.4-15a)?
  3. With what ideas do these errant teachers mislead those who trust in their judgment (v.18-19)?
  4. What do verses 20-22 suggest about the nature of salvation, and can this passage be reconciled with Romans 8:38-39?


C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain (1940), chp. 8 ("Hell"), PDF

  1. Which does Lewis attempt in chapter eight, to make Hell appear “tolerable” or “moral” (121)?
  2. Does the detailed sketch of a sinful man provided by Lewis (122-23) feel fantastic, or does it have the ring of reality?  Does the portrait seem parodic and hyperbolic, or grounded and familiar?
  3. Do you agree w/ Lewis’ claim that forgiveness, to be complete, must not only be offered but accepted (124)?
  4. What does Lewis mean by the suggestion that perdition might be an already present reality as much as it is an imposed judgment and relocation (124-25)?
  5. According to Lewis, does offering someone forgiveness ensure that forgiveness is "complete" (124)?
  6. Lewis links the very capacity for enjoying good to the taste for what (125)? What does he mean by this?
  7. Does Lewis conceive of eternity as a line, plane, or solid (125)?
  8. Which does Lewis privilege when conceiving of Hell: visions of torture and suffering, or utter destruction and privation (127-28, 128-29)?
  9. In Lewis’ imagination, are the doors to Hell locked on the outside or from the inside (129-30)?
  10. What do you think of Lewis’ recommendation that any consideration of Hell remain personal—that we always consider the possible damnation not only of easy, exterior targets, but of ourselves (130-31)?


C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain (1940), chp. 10 ("Heaven"), PDF

  1. What does Lewis mean by the claim that "Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire" (149).
  2. Lewis argues that humanity's longing for heaven is irrefutable, woven into our unfulfilled desires and inexplicable, unmet longings--we each hunger for a unique, custom-made thing that remains tantalizingly out of our reach (149-52). Can you identify yearnings in your own life, "unattainable ecstasy[ies]" (152) that fit this criterion?
  3. Does Lewis believe that, in heaven, God celebrates the diversity of humanity, or remolds it into infinite sameness (151-52, 154-55)?
  4. Lewis likens life on earth as training for life eternal, which he compares to what two, particular forms of revelry (158-59)?
  5. Lewis often draws attention to the incompleteness and limitations of his own ideas, as well as to his ignorance (82-83, etc.) Do these kinds of admissions endear him to you, or prompt you to respect him less?


Two elephants with elongated legs rise high into a reddish-orangish sky
The Elephants (1948)
oil on canvas
Salvador Dalí



Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu