Sin and Hell

Comment:

I am glad you are finding the writings of Florence Scovel Shinn to be helpful on your spiritual path. She is a very positive teacher, so it's not surprising that you are not finding anything in her writings about sin, condemnation and hell.

The word sin derives from a Greek root that means “missing the mark,” as an archer might miss a target with his arrow. In other words, we make a choice that doesn't prove useful—it misses the target we intended. These choices will, indeed, have consequences—not because of an angry God, but because there are no exceptions to the divine law that our choices will have consequences in our life experience. The appropriate action is not to stay locked in a sense of shame and guilt, but to learn from the experience—and make another choice. In this way, our “sins” become useful guides helping us improve our aim as we continue to strive for the kingdom.

Hell is often defined as a place of eternal punishment—the greatest punishment of all being the absence of God. But we believe in a God of omnipresence; therefore there can be no place where God is absent. So hell can have no reality in spiritual Truth. Of course, we can—and do—believe that we are absent from God. We can judge ourselves so harshly that we feel rejected by God and alienated from our spiritual purpose. It isn't true—it's never true. But the belief can become a powerful, negative force in our lives. That's why we understand hell to be a state of consciousness we impose upon ourselves here, in this human experience. It is not a punishment that awaits us after death.

As for condemnation, it's not a word we would ever use. It implies judgment, and Jesus consistently taught that we are not here to judge—either ourselves or others. The only time I can think of him even using the word (or its Aramaic equivalent, of course) is when he says to the woman accused of adultery, "Neither do I condemn you." Many of the choices we make deserve correction; none deserve condemnation. It's not our purpose, and it's contrary to the nature of God.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed