Paul,

Metaphors are used to help us understand that which we might not easy otherwise. Generally they describe suffering etc with words like fire outer darkness, torment etc, but metaphor does not use eternal to describe for instance a long week, or toment to describe ceasing to exist.

I believe that Hell is both consious and eternal:

“If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be TORMENTED with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their TORMENT rises FOREVER and EVER. There is NO REST day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.”

Beyond those two issues of consciousness and eternality,we know nothing. No one likes the concept of hell, but at times we must simply believe what the Bible and the Church teaches (via the apostolic tradition) and trust in God’s fairness and goodness etc. When the saints are all i heaven in the Book of Rev. after the final judgements, they sing of his justice and fairness and goodness. I will also do so now. And I do not need to reject certain portions of the Christian faith to do so. Embracing mysteries is part of our faith. Mclaren seems to be atking the approach that since his brain and heart cannot reconcile hell with a perfectly good God, that he must deconstuct the Biblical passages that speak of hell and then ignore the apsotolic tradition that bears witness to this reality. We know that the Bible uses both metaphores and descriptives to give us an idea of things that are difficult to grasp. Outer darkness, fire, weeping, bitter regret etc are all used. They seem to conflict though there is a theme. What Hell is we do not really know. Who will go there, I do not know. I know that I will not be there by the grace of Him who loved me. Despite my utter sinfullness and perpetual shmuckishness. We do know that anihilationism (those souls who do not go to heaven cease to exist) or universalism (everyone eventually goes to heaven) is not Orthodox according to the apostolic tradition and needs to be rejected. We need to embrace Orthodoxy and trust God. Anything beyond this is pride.