Hellfire is Realer Than Real

Throughout the centuries, Satan has been portrayed as a fiery devil, frightening like something seen in a nightmare. And, although the Church does not have an official teaching in the most solemn sense that one must envision the Demon the way he has been popularly presented, we would do well to follow the wisdom of the mystics and saints who have all seen fit to tell us of the demonic with consistent imagery. If anything, even if those images of a fiery furnace are meant to be more allegorical than literal (I do not deny the reality of hellfire in the slightest but only hope to speak here of a different layer of meaning) we are not left with a Hell that is any less hellish. ...Whereas in our day, we are so smart and nothing like those simple people—people simple enough to realize that cutting off an organ does not change a gender—who needed such grotesque imagery in their theology. Modern man needs a reasonable devil, not a fiery one!  This mentality, so common today, is ironically very devilish. To believe the sophistry that belief in a fiery Hell or a monstrous demon is irrational or unfitting of a reasonable Christian is the height of demonic pride.