50 The Question of an Eternal Hell
pravity. He proclaims that God hates the damned, and in fact
created them to be the objects of his hatred (see his commen-
taries on the epistles of John). For him, the true unadorned
essence of the whole story is nothing more than sheer abso-
lute power exercising itself for power's sake, which therefore
necessarily manifests itself in boundless cruelty no less than in
boundless generosity. Calvinists, of course, will object to my
phrasing it that way; but it is accurate all the same.
Once again, though, I have to confess a certain admi-
ration here; I can see a certain illuminating logic in this per-
spective, even when approaching the matter in purely human
terms. Consider, for instance, the emperor Domitian, who ac-
cording to the Roman historian Suetonius once invited one of
his stewards to dine with him in his private apartments - to
recline in his presence, to eat from his dishes, to share in deli-
cacies normally reserved for only the most powerful man in
the world and his cherished intimates. It was the highest honor
the steward had ever received or could ever have hoped for;
it was certainly nothing he would ever have imagined he had
any right to expect. The next day, Domitian ordered that the
steward be crucified. Now that is impressive, one has to say. It
was as grand a demonstration of absolute sovereignty as one
could ever imagine, and perfect proof of how immeasurably
far above the level of the ordinary categories of good and evil
such sovereignty operates. It showed with utter clarity that the
gifts imparted by absolute power are entirely gracious, and that
those upon whom they are bestowed have no right to presume
them; and it proved just as emphatically that such power is,
for this very reason, bound to no common measure of justice
or mercy, and so properly reveals itself in the sheer capricious-
ness of its malice no less than in the lavishness of its largesse.
It is an old adage of certain streams of Reformed thought that