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CURRENTLY IN CULTURE
Princess Diana and the discussion of hell

Martin E. Marty

Benjamin Franklin said, “I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity . . . [or] that all crime will be punished . . . either here or hereafter.”

Early in the 20th century, some public school textbooks could still take hell for granted and thus threaten unrepentant liars and other errant children. But hell waned in the teachings of many churches.

Hell does, however, keep coming up for discussion. Take, for instance, a 1998 column in Prospect magazine, which has been reprinted in many newspapers. In the article, Philip Nobile, a Catholic theologian, used the death of Princess Diana to deal with ambiguity about eternal punishment.

Several years ago, U.S. Catholic took a survey of Catholics and found that almost none feared hell, few would send anyone to the eternal flames, and when asked to picture who could be there, respondents could agree only on Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Add Princess Diana to that list, says Nobile, if you take seriously the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church: “To sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from Him forever.”

Nobile assumes that the adulterous princess and Emad “Dodi” Al Fayed had committed “unrepented fornication” and unless she had time after the crash and before death to repent, “hell looms as the most plausible spot for the princess’s soul”. Christian doctrine requires this.

If so, asks Nobile, what was Pope John Paul II doing when he overlooked the damning evidence against her and wrote that he had “offered prayers summoning her to our Heavenly Father’s eternal love? How do we explain the pope’s apparent blessing of the world’s most famous offender against the sixth commandment?”

Christian theologians are of more minds than one on the fate of souls after death. Nobile used the moment to ask Christian theologians to be less ambiguous.

This article was distributed as a Sightings column by the Public Religion Project, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and directed by University of Chicago professor Martin E. Marty. Previous Sightings are available at: www.publicreligionproj.org/services/sightings/archive/.

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

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