Anthony DESTAFANO. Hell: A Guide. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson (Nelson Books), 2020. xvii + 233 pages, hardcover: $25.99. ISBN 9780718080617. Reviewed by Thomas SIMMONS, University of South Dakota School of Law, Vermillion, South Dakota 57069.

Well-known author Anthony DeStefano’s “Hell” takes the reader on a guided tour of that place. He explores various nooks and crannies – theologically speaking – of hell. One chapter considers the terrain and material dimensions of hell. Another “Relationships in the City of the Damned.” The last judgment is unpacked. Hellfire is chronicled. Sin is outlined. Demons are described.

A final chapter – which weights whether one ought to make the trip – readily concludes in the negative. Appended to this final chapter are endnotes citing mostly to Bible verses, an excellent bibliography, and nearly twenty pages of quoted Bible passages on the topics of Satan, and demons, and, of course, hell. There is no index.

DeStefano’s prose is far from that from C.S. Lewis, Joseph Ratzinger, or Hans Urs von Balthasar. He’s not above direct appeals to the reader: “This is no joke!” (126). “Let’s try to really understand this” (95). “Do you get what we’re saying here?” (60). “This is so important for us to grasp” (25). “Pay close attention here!” (34). “This point is critical to understand” (186). He sets out to write a virtual visit to the bottomless pit, but without the reader having to endure “an overly preachy, difficult text” (xv). In this, he succeeds.

This is the work of a mature thinker and a confident writer who has carefully mapped out the sequencing of his condensed treatise. He begins with an insistence upon self-reflection, demanding that his readers first “get in touch with the evil monsters who live inside your soul” (12). Admittedly, this approach may turn off the casual reader. But by adhering to this format, DeStefano is then able to unspool the origins of hell and achieve some level of sympathetic understanding with those angels who – as we all do from time to time – chose self-love over divine love. He further explains the nature of angelic choices which necessarily ignited an angelic war and gave rise to hell.  

DeSteafano also explores a number of finer points. He considers the nature of time in hell. He explores satanic strategies and how best to avoid them. And he devotes attention to the metaphysics of hell as well.

He notes that hell is not entirely bad since “[i]f there was absolutely no good in hell, then, strictly speaking, it would not exist” (103-04). “This is an important philosophical point to grasp,” he adds (104). Hell must possess some degree of the good insofar as it is better that hell exists than for it not to exist. With God Himself as pure actuality and limitless being on one pole and nonexistence on the opposite pole, hell must exist some degrees left of total nonexistence. Despite the wretchedness of being in hell, it must be better than nonexistence, otherwise it would not exist, metaphysically speaking. And from this philosophical point, it also follows that the residents of hell are functional and operational creatures on some level.

“Hell” conveys an orthodox Christian viewpoint on hell while avoiding a strictly Catholic lens. Although DeStefano mentions purgatory, he does not argue for it. Indeed, “Hell” is not an argumentative or apologetic text at all. Its approach is matter of fact, and it acknowledges when sound theological ground has given way to unsettled speculation. In a particularly vivid passage, DeStefano speculates whether, post-Judgment-Day, the bodies of the residents in hell will be disfigured in conformity with their sins as famously described by Alighieri Dante. Thus, for example, “if envy is the sin that characterizes your earthly existence, and you remain obstinate in it until death, then perhaps in hell your eyes will be unnaturally enlarged, without eyelids to blink, opened wide forever, always looking at everything and everyone with covetousness” (99).

While folksy, this deceptively easy-to-read book contains a genuine density and an authentic heft. While designed for entry level eschatologists, it makes for worthwhile reading for anyone, believers, nonbelievers, and skeptics alike.