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BestsellerE-book
Author Bernstein, Alan E., author.

Title Hell and its rivals : death and retribution among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the early Middle Ages / Alan E. Bernstein.

Publication Info. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource
text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Gregory the Great : order in chaos -- Inner death : hell in the conscience -- The punishments : slavery, torture, and hell -- Exceptions to hell : relief and escape -- Calibrated justice and purgatorial fire -- Visions : rights to souls -- Rabbinic Judaism -- Byzantine universalism : the path not taken -- Islam : the mockers mocked.
Summary The idea of punishment after death-whereby the souls of the wicked are consigned to Hell (Gehenna, Gehinnom, or Jahannam)-emerged out of beliefs found across the Mediterranean, from ancient Egypt to Zoroastrian Persia, and became fundamental to the Abrahamic religions. Once Hell achieved doctrinal expression in the New Testament, the Talmud, and the Qur'an, thinkers began to question Hell’s eternity, and to consider possible alternatives-hell’s rivals. Some imagined outright escape, others periodic but temporary relief within the torments. One option, including Purgatory and, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Middle State, was to consider the punishments to be temporary and purifying. Despite these moral and theological hesitations, the idea of Hell has remained a historical and theological force until the present.In Hell and Its Rivals, Alan E. Bernstein examines an array of sources from within and beyond the three Abrahamic faiths-including theology, chronicles, legal charters, edifying tales, and narratives of near-death experiences-to analyze the origins and evolution of belief in Hell. Key social institutions, including slavery, capital punishment, and monarchy, also affected the afterlife beliefs of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Reflection on hell encouraged a stigmatization of "the other" that in turn emphasized the differences between these religions. Yet, despite these rivalries, each community proclaimed eternal punishment and answered related challenges to it in similar terms. For all that divided them, they agreed on the need for-and fact of-Hell.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Hell -- Comparative studies.
Hell.
Genre/Form Comparative studies.
Subject Hell -- Christianity -- History of doctrines -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Hell -- Islam -- History of doctrines -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Hell -- Judaism -- History of doctrines -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Chronological Term 600-1500
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Other Form: Print version: Bernstein, Alan E. Hell and its rivals. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017 9781501707803 (DLC) 2016051661
ISBN 9781501712487 (epub/mobi)
1501712489
9781501712494 (pdf)
1501712497
9781501707803