A Good Place To Start
Clement of Alexandria, Diodore Bishop of Tarsus, and John Crowder's survey of church history reveal that the early fathers largely understood divine judgment not as retribution for its own sake, but as a form of correction aimed at transformation and restoration.
“For there are partial corrections (padeiai) which are called chastisements (kolasis), which many of us who have been in transgression incur by falling away from the Lord’s people. But as children are chastised by their teacher, or their...
“For the wicked there are punishments not perpetual, . . . but they are to be tormented for a certain brief period, according to the amount of malice in their works. They shall therefore suffer punishment for a short space, but immortal...
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