infernalism means belief in the existence of hell, especially as a place of eternal and conscious torment after death. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 100 out of 100.
Why “infernalism” is a great word
INFERNALISM — [Noun] The theological doctrine affirming the existence of hell as a place of eternal conscious torment. From the English adjective 'infernal' (from Latin *infernalis*, "of the lower regions") and the suffix '-ism' (denoting a system, principle, or doctrine). First attested in 1795. Unlike annihilationism, which posits a final extinction of the wicked, or universalism, which promises ultimate reconciliation for all, infernalism insists on a permanent, punitive theatre of consciousness. It is the furnace that never consumes its fuel, the memory of water in a throat forever parched, and the door that is forever shut—a grim assertion that some silences are not merciful, but eternal.
Etymology
From infernal + -ism. First attested in 1795, popularised in the theological sense in the 2000s–10s.
noun
- Belief in the existence of hell, especially as a place of eternal and conscious torment after death.“To these conceptions Protestant churches will gradually yield, and while still nominally the same in their faith, its infernalism will disappear, and the idea of future punishment will become a rational instead of a diabolical picture of Divine justice.”
- Hellishness.“It is because worship has been slavishly bestowed on the personification of the worst of the human qualities magnified to infernalism, that it has been considered a degrading, or at least a pusilanimous thing […]”
- An infernal thing or act.“Is not the State an infernal institution? Why expect from it, then, anything but infernalisms?”