Customer Reviews

The History of Hell

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A beautifully illustrated work of witty, perceptive and wide-ranging scholarship, Turner presents a multi-faceted Hell that one can't help but be drawn to. The chapters are fairly short and readable--this is no heavy, dry academic tome, although you'd have to be a complete bore to make this subject anything less than fascinating--at least for me. There's not much of hell at all in the Bible; most of our perceptions of hell were indeed formed by Milton and Dante and other works outside the Christian biblical canon. Turner concentrates on how images of the infernal place have changed over centuries, and how our philosophies of what is human, what is good, etc. change and adapt. She's a sharp, insightful writer, although I suspect her sometimes irreverent, agnostic tone may turn off some readers. I could be wrong though! I recommend this along with Jeffrey Burton Russell's "Prince of Darkness" (perhaps the single best book on the Devil himself, from 1988); Paul Carus' "The Devil"; and Lauren Paine's "The Hierarchy of Hell." Together these books are a long gaze into the abyss....

Alice Turner's "History of Hell", while a seemingly glossy coffetable book, turns out, in fact, to be a well written introduction to the history and mythology of the Underworld as it appears throughout many cultures and religions over the past 5000 years.

The book begins with the earliest recorded tradtions of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians and their ideas of the afterlife and the Underworld and how these notions greatly influenced later cultures and religions like Ancient Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christiantiy, and Islam. She relates the traditions of the Greco-Roman Underworld and all the attendant gods and goddesses and how it is with Greek and Roman literature that the Infernal regions begin to grow in prominence. It is however in Chritianity that the notion of an Infernal Underworld of pain, torture, and enternal suffering for sinners and evil-doers comes to the real forefront. Christianity is the only religion that seems to place such heavy emphasis on the existence of a place of eternal damnation, where demons torture the souls of the deceased and the Devil presides over all. Turner examines the literature of St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Milton, and others, as the myths of Hell grow and change over time to become the popular notion we still hold today of Hell as a place of fire, brimstone, and torment, as well as the effect of art in the common perceptions of Hell. It is quite an intersting fact that while we should aspire to the paradise of Heaven, it is the Inferno that continues, after all this time, to fascinate and captivate our imaginations.

The subject matter on this book is, by nature, rather on the dark side. I had to take it in small doses because it can be depressing to focus heavily on this sort of thing. On the other hand, it was well researched, thorough, and highly-informative.
Where I think Ms. Turner lost some direction is in her conclusion that Christianity teaches the doctrine of a fiery, burning hell. Yes, I know - many churches in Christendom do teach this as a doctrine - and most Bible translations translate the original language words 'hades', 'Gehenna', and 'sheol' as "Hell" or "Hellfire". but with careful (and honest) research, it becomes apparent that Bible translators (Not the bible writers)have been heavily influenced by paganism and writers such as Dante (1265 to 1321 AD).
Consider, for example one of the Greek words translated as "Hellfire": 'Gehenna' This is the Greek spelling of the Hebrew, "ge-Hinnom", or the "Valley of Hinnom". This valley, located southwest of Jerusalem, takes its name from a man, whose name was Hinnom and his sons who apparently came to own this property. It was in this valley that wicked kings, Ahaz and Manasseh sacrificed their children in the fire as an offering to Baal (2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6). Of this practice, God said, "To burn their sons and their daughters with fire, which I did not command, nor did it come up on My heart." (Jeremiah 7:31). In this valley, these kings also practiced witchcraft, sorcery, divination, and also built up "high places" in worship of false Gods. Later, Josiah had parts of this valley polluted to render it unfit for any such practices in the future. In Jesus' day, the Valley of Hinnom was being used as a garbage dump.
There is a curious anomaly however, that seems to affect many, if not most translations of the Bible. Using the King James Version as an example, in the Hebrew Old Testament, the words ge-Hinnom occur thirteen times, and each time, it is translated as the `valley of Hinnom'. Yet, when the Hebrew words ge-Hinnom are transliterated into Greek, Gehenna, the KJV translators consistently render the word as `Hell'. Why is this word recognized as a geographical region in the Old Testament, but, in the New Testament, as a place of fiery burning torment? Is there a valid basis for the "hell fire" rendering? To answer those questions, we need to look carefully at the Bible passages in which it occurs, the context of the time, and also at the audience to whom those words were addressed.
Of the twelve New Testament passages where Gehenna is used, eleven are in the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke. All of these quote Jesus' words. The other Gehenna passage is in James 3:6. Of these verses, five mention fire as an element of Gehenna. The sense of judgment, condemnation, or destruction is present in most of these verses. Probably, for this reason, translators take the passages as a metaphor or description of `hellfire', but is it possible that there could be another explanation that better harmonizes with God's quality of love? Yes.
Keep in mind that this is a Hebrew word, and, in each case, Jesus was speaking to Jews. These Jews were certainly familiar with Jerusalem and its surroundings, including the nearby Valley of Hinnom, which, as previously stated, was used as a garbage dump. Here, fires were constantly kept burning as a means of consuming the refuse and the smoke from those fires would have been an constant feature of its
presence, and visible from considerable
distance. Sulfur, or brimstone was regularly thrown into the fires to accelerate the burning. That which was not destroyed by the fire was eaten by the worms or maggots, thus Jesus' words in Mark 9:47, "where their worm is not dying and the fire is not being quenched." must be taken as a literal description of conditions in the Valley of Hinnom. But how is that connected with the idea of punishment?
The fact is that, not only trash was consumed in the fires of Gehenna, but also the carcasses of animals and the bodies of executed criminals were thrown into the fires to be burned up and forever destroyed. Never were live people thrown into Gehenna to be tortured. In Jewish belief, future life depended upon the restoration of the whole person through a resurrection. Normally, dead bodies were always buried - never cremated, to allow for this resurrection to take place. To completely destroy a person's body in Gehenna meant that he was considered unworthy of being resurrected at any time in the future. To be thrown into Gehenna would, to Jesus' Jewish listeners, signify a permanent death without any hope of future life, forever cut off from God. There could be no worse punishment than this.
I could address the word hades also, but space does not permit here.
The point is: Christendom's doctrine of Hellfire is based on pagan influences and tradition - but it is not a Biblical teaching.
Maybe Ms. Turner should consider adding a statement in her book to the effect that Christendom adopted their hellfire beliefs from ancient non-biblical sources. On the other hand, anyone reading this book should logically come to that conclusion on their own.

For someone who is looking to learn about a strange phenomenon that has interested many people including myself, then this is the book. The author gives a very complete factual account of how the different cultures have embraced the idea of the after life. My favorite aspect of the book is how the author brings together the fact that the religious establishments have used the notion of hell as a very influential tool throughout history. Overall, the book is great and I would recommend it to anyone.

This book is not for those who are not secure in their religion or have a hard time dealing with facts. This book is incredible and even made me question myself and whether my faith was what I thought it was. I had to question whether I was still a Christian at the end od this book. However I still enjoyed reading this book, it made me a spiritually stronger Christian, I don't believe this was the purpose of this book that is just how I feel. In closing i would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the ideas of other religions and cultures or where there own ideas come from.

This is a great book. It starts out by having chapters on pre-Christ underworlds, including Eqyption and Greek. Then it moves from the beginging of Christian Hell, to our present day view of Hell, stopping to look at Dante's Hell, "Paridise Lost", and much more. The pictures are excellent, and the book is stocked full of them. I was hoping for more information on pagan underworlds, but the book is entitled "The History of Hell" meaning basiclly the history of Christian Hell. A wonderful book.

This is a wonderfully artistic treatment of Hell as a concept. It is clearly researched and presented just as the title says, a clearly defined historical presentation of just what the hell, Hell is supposed to look like and be like according to the available literature.It is a review of Hell with a multi-religious and cultural perspective.Most religions are clearly covered and their past and current viewpoints about what they consider to be the final resting place of the worlds evil people.It is loaded with artistic reproductions of most of the major painters' visions and interpretations of what Hell looks like.There are scenes aside from Dante and Dore to sample from.It reads well and there is always something to look at so it staves off the occasional boredom.Devils,demons,hells of all kinds as well as apocalyptic visions are here to peruse.This is a very good starting point for the study of Hell as a place,a concept,a possible reality after death.Turner does a good job. As others have mentioned,it could almost be a coffee table book because of its smooth,slick and colorfully, artsy presentation.This does not take away from its merit. Trust me it's a good book and definitely worth having. It's a welcome addition to any library that would have this subject matter as a friend.It is clearly defined,unpretentious and a sturdy reference book,worthy of purchase. You'll be pleased.

This is a wonderful book for anyone that is interested in the many versions of Hell. This book is also extremely interesting for anyone interested in the darker side of classical literature; which is where the author pulls most of the examples from.

The book is set up chronologically. The author cites many possible origins of hell as well as elucidating some delightful etymological roots of the word Hell. The book progresses throughout western history epoch by epoch, sometimes dedicating entire sections to authors like Dante and Goethe.

The writing style, as addressed by former reviewers, is distracting only if you are looking for an academic tone, which it doesn't have. The writing style is more chummy, warm. I think it is more than appropriate considering the heavy subject matter that the author took on. The book overall is an enlightening piece of work that doubles as a wonderful reference for any history or literature students that may interested.

All kidding aside, Turner's book really is a fine exploration of the ways in which hell--or, more properly, the underworld--has been viewed by various civilizations throughout history. Her account is scholarly enough to satisfy academics, but remains sufficiently fluid and compelling for the lay reader's tastes. Highly recommended for anyone interested in death rituals, the afterlife, or the formation of Christian doctrine.

I am still reading this book. I love it so far. I have been looking for something that went deep into ancient cultures beliefs on the afterlife and how they compare to that of Christianity. She does a great job of showing how the different ancient cultures borowed and mixed their mythology and how it has affected Christianity. I can't imagine anyone reading this book and not having to look differently at their faith. There are so many similarities between these ancient "myths" and our Christian "truths". I highly recommend it.