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uh...first off there aren't flat-out answers to any of these questions.
1. christian theology--taken in a non-protestant sense, and so including catholicism--was once alarmingly consistent on this question. that's why the story of the harrowing of hell was fashioned--you know: while jeusus was dead he went on a road trip (i like to think of it as happening in a wood-panelled station wagon, but that's just me) to hell to get aristotle and plato so that christian thinking had some hope of making sense. it was hardly plausible to have these folk burning there when their work stood at the center of christianity itself. traditionally, xtianity has been kinda merciless toward the Outside.
think of it this way---for a certain population, the advent of the popiel pocket fisherman was a lifechanging event. but it could only be life-changing if you knew about the popiel pocket fisherman. if you didn't, too bad for you.
there's alot of conflicted business about native americans in earlyu euro=accounts of their colonial adventure in north america. before things like king philip's war, there was a tendency to describe them as children, presumably so they could be sent to limbo, which apparently wasn't so bad, an eternity of wandering around, compared with roasting on a spit or being upside down in ice.
this isn't so far from aquinas, really.
the outside is the outside and so is beyond our control---the Problem is the border: once you've heard about the popiel pocket fisherman you're in a position to buy it or reject it, and if you choose B then you're a Problem.
but the outside--beyond the reach of the infomercials of salvation--that's another matter. so limbo, i'd think.
2. shit happens.
there was a vaguely interesting debate about this concerning a earthquake that hit lisbon in the early/mid 18th century.
most of the positions that are still rehearsed now were rehearsed then.
voltaire, rousseau, all those cats played the game.
read that.
3 is a version of 1. there's a joke in there somewhere about the trinity, but i'll leave it to your imagination. it's probably funnier that way.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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