Thoughts on Punishments, Part II
Here is part I. It might be objected that we unfairly do away with condemnation, the Artisan theory of punishment, as something by which God can be motivated. In our defense let us argue that the purpose of condemnation is less the destruction of the evildoer than it is protection of society, just as cancerous cells are removed and burned so that the rest of the body may remain healthy. “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Mt 5:29-30) Thus, a sinner may in theory be cut off from the communion of saints and from God and be thrown into the fire. However: protecting the heavenly host from contamination by vicious individuals can also be accomplished by letting such people sit in purgatory and be purged (with the same fire as the fire of hell, according to Aquinas) and ultimately rehabilitated with suffering as intense as is needed. In other words, God’s power includes the ability to convert cancer cells in the body of Christ into normal cells no matter how corrupt the former have become.