Sometimes the picture of hell has been painted in lurid fashion, with ghastly punishment inflicted upon «lost» persons; more frequently, at least in recent theological writing, this aspect has been muted or denied, and stress has been put on such ideas as persistence after death apart from God's presence — or even in that presence, which for the utterly unworthy man or
woman would be horrifying, as when an
evil person is compelled to be with someone whom he or she
deeply hates.