What jumps out at me are the similarities, if not oversimplifications, of Dante in his poetic journey through the catechisms of Hell. It got me to thinking and searching. Realizing that Catholicism has long championed the belief of a Purgatory designed for the holding of wayward yet "non-evil" souls as they await final judgment. To me, it is a perversion of the Hebrew / Greek belief in Hades. A place according to the Greek, designed to hold souls for transition into their final rewards ( good or bad ). Jews in the second century BC accepted the Oral Torah teachings that incorporated the idea of Hades as a place called Sheol designed to hold spirits either in the bosom of Abraham or the place of woe awaiting final judgement as well.
In looking at Dante's work, I see the possibility of separate "chambers" of Hell but without the limitations and constraints that Dante hoped to put on them. It's my belief that our God is bigger than labels. Lust, Anger, Sloth, their all the same in the eyes of a righteous God. You see, I think these chambers could be "pools" of consciousness as related by ones manner or guiding force in life. Live your life in lust, perhaps losing your life in this mindset damns you to an eternity of want. A never fulfilled need or yearning for that which you most seek. Anger, perhaps a constant state of eternal turmoil. An eternity without comfort, without rest, without love.
And so on and so on...
You see, there can be no end, no categories. Each and every person confined to their own hell. Smaller than the whole but all suspended in the lake of fire. The bible make mention of the possibility of these chambers in Deuteronomy 32:22 where it mentions the "lowest hell" and in Psalms 86:13 where it mentions the same. Still more evidence is found in Proverbs 7:27 with Solomon's statement," Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death."
All of these and more point to this possibility. Still, the Lake of Fire is pretty scary in it of itself
