In brief, it is bad, from a retributive point of view, if a wrongdoer does not get the punishment he deserves, and the longer it takes for him to get the full punishment he deserves, the greater the chance that he will either die or change in such a way that it is no longer reasonable to punish him for what he did.
The book emerged from a growing need to challenge and offer alternatives to a prevailing view of God as retributive (or 'monster-god,' to cite Brian Zahnd, who wrote the foreword --a God unlike Jesus to whom many in the Evangelical tradition still cling, or foreword --aey are attempting to foreword --a
Another set of objections to the Augustinian understanding of hell arises from the perspective of those who reject a retributive theory of punishment.
So why, one may ask, do so many Augustinians, despite their commitment to a retributive theory of punishment, insist that God could justly condemn even infants on account of their supposedly inherited guilt?
One view of God - the more fundamentalist view - is of a retributive God just itching to punish those who "stray".
The most promising way to respond to this criticism within a retributive framework is to distinguish two kinds of desert: desert that corresponds to a view about what would be a good outcome, and desert that concerns rights (Hill 1999: 425 426).
Yet despite the threat of a retributive fight, taking aim at injured players persists.
That redemptive view holds that far from God being a retributive God seeking justice, God is a merciful father who loves all his children equally.
Therefore, a retributive commitment to proportionality would require the abolition of punishment.
