The Dogma of Hell ─ Illustrated by Facts Taken from Profane and Sacred History

The Dogma of Hell explores the basic Catholic doctrine on Hell, purposefully awakening in the reader a profound realization of its reality and eternity of horrors. Eminent French theologian Fr F X Schouppe, SJ, author of Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints, has written here a similar but much smaller book.

In short chapters, he has recounted numerous true stories, apparitions of the damned, and complete Catholic teaching on Hell. He clearly shows that for those who are not motivated to do good out of love of God, the fear of Hell is a legitimate and often salutary motive for avoiding sin.

Although the subject matter is frightening, the ultimate purpose of this book is not to frighten souls, but to help them avoid damnation by reminding them of the pain and suffering in an eternity spent in the absence of God.

Father F.X. Schouppe, S.J. was an eminent theologian of the nineteenth century. He was the author of Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints and The Dogma of Hell. His purpose with the latter work, though the subject itself is terrifying, was not to sensationalize or to horrify; but rather to instruct people on the reality of Hell and to excite them to a dread of losing Heaven. The Dogma of Hell was originally published in 1883 by P.V. Hickey, and Purgatory Explained was printed in the late 1800s with the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur.