Ancient afterlife beliefs

  Paul J. Griffiths on annihilation as the fate of the lost and Augustine’s view of sin “The depiction of sin’s damage by way of images of ontological loss, of decrease in being, is everywhere in the fathers of the church. Augustine depicts it often, and lyrically: [The rational soul] does many things because of perverse desire, as though it had forgotten itself. It sees in an interior way certain beautiful things which are in that more eminent nature which is God. And although it should keep still so that it might enjoy them, it wants instead to make them subject to itself, and not to be like him [God] because of him, but to be what he [God] is all by itself. And so it turns away from him [God] and slips and slides into what is less and less, which it imagines to be more and more. Neither itself nor anything else suffices for it as it moves away from that one [God] who alone suffices. In its destitution and difficulty, it becomes increasingly intent upon its own actions, and u...

  Sin and non-being Let me start with two quotations of two early Christians. The first is of Irenaeus of Lyons (fl. 2 nd century): “Therefore the Son of the Father declares [Him] from the beginning, inasmuch as He was with the Father from the beginning, who did also show to the human race prophetic visions, and diversities of gifts, and His own ministrations, and the glory of the Father, in regular order and connection, at the fitting time for the benefit [of mankind]. For where there is a regular succession, there is also fixedness; and where fixedness, there suitability to the period; and where suitability, there also utility. And for this reason did the Word become the dispenser of the paternal grace for the benefit of men, for whom He made such great dispensations, revealing God indeed to men, but presenting man to God, and preserving at the same time the invisibility of the Father, lest man should at any time become a despiser of God, and that he should always possess so...

In this post, I'll comment some quotes of the current Catechism of the Catholic Church about the fate of the 'lost'.  Paragraph 1033  of the Catechism  reads: "To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."" (source: https://www.catholiccrossreference.online/catechism/#!/search/1033-1037 ) Arguably, if it is even possible to reach a state of 'definitive self-exclusion' from God, one might even argue that the damned cease to be proper human beings. In paragraph 27, we read: "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for" (source: https://www.catholiccrossreference.online/catec...

  Possible conditionalism in Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons Conditionalism: belief that the soul is not immortal and the fate of those who will not be saved will be annihilation, perhaps after a time of conscious torment after death. Justin Martyr From Dialogue of Trypho , sayings attributed to an ‘old man’ which seems to have the role of the ‘teacher’: “Old Man: But I do not say, indeed, that all souls die; for that were truly a piece of good fortune to the evil. What then? The souls of the pious remain in a better place, while those of the unjust and wicked are in a worse, waiting for the time of judgment. Thus some which have appeared worthy of God never die; but others are punished so long as God wills them to exist and to be punished." (Dialogue of Trypho, chapter 5, source:  https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01281.htm  ) ... "Old Man: It makes no matter to me whether Plato or Pythagoras, or, in short, any other man held such opinions. For the truth ...