Edward William Fudge (July 13, 1944 – November 25, 2017) was an American Christian theologian and lawyer, best known for his book The Fire That Consumes in which he argues for an annihilationist Biblical interpretation of Hell.
After completing his master's in Biblical languages from Abilene, Fudge ministered for non-institutional Churches of Christ in St. Louis and Athens, Alabama.
The first printing of the first edition, subtitled A Biblical and Historical Study of Final Punishment, was published in early 1982 (ISBN 0-89890-018-2) by Verdict Publications (Australia), with a foreword by F. F. Bruce of Manchester, England.
The book examined the doctrine of the final punishment of the unredeemed from throughout the whole Bible, non-biblical literature of Second Temple Judaism (Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls), as well as the historical development of the doctrine of final punishment through the Apostolic Fathers; Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Fathers; medieval and later theologians; and Reformers and later theologians.
Twelve years later in 1994, a condensed second edition (ISBN 0-85364-587-6), subtitled The Biblical Case for Conditional Immortality and including a new foreword by John W. Wenham of Oxford, was published by Paternoster Press in England.
This edition was again subtitled A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, and included a new foreword by Richard Bauckham of Cambridge University.