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Hell and Its Rivals: Death and Retribution Among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages
Alan E. Bernstein
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Description for Hell and Its Rivals: Death and Retribution Among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages
Hardback. Num Pages: 432 pages, 4, 1 black & white halftones, 3 black & white tables. BIC Classification: HBLC1. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 229 x 152. .
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.
Product Details
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2017
Condition
New
Weight
28g
Number of Pages
408
Place of Publication
Ithaca, United States
ISBN
9781501707803
SKU
V9781501707803
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-16
About Alan E. Bernstein
Alan E. Bernstein is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Hell and Its Rivals: Death and Retribution among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages and The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds, both from Cornell.
Reviews for Hell and Its Rivals: Death and Retribution Among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages
Alan E. Bernstein continues his fine work onHell with extraordinary success. Bernstein understands Hell through both the history of concepts and of social history, interpreting the monotheistic ideas of Hell in theology and in popular thought.
Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of The Prince of Darkness With The Formation of Hell, Alan E. Bernstein established his reputation as a sophisticated historian of Hell. He is an authority I regularly turn to for questions about Hell, its sources, and its implications for society, piety, and culture. The appearance of Hell and Its Rivals, extending the time frame into the early and high Middle Ages, and encompassing Patristic, Byzantine, Rabbinic, and Islamic sources, is a welcome event.
Carol Zaleski, Smith College, author of Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times Erudite and readable, Hell and Its Rivals is the crucial resource for those interested in the formation of the doctrine of Hell over late antiquity and the early medieval period. Alan E. Bernstein has a remarkable knowledge of the relevant textual history of the period and of the details of the texts with which he deals.
Philip C. Almond, University of Queensland, author of Afterlife: A History of Life after Death This [book] allows readers to realize that hell in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is not just an everlasting realm of punishment after a literal death. Instead, hell is a result of negotiations and contestations within individual Abrahamic religious communities.... Hell and Its Rivals is a useful addition to eschatological study. It forces us to rethink the fixed and variable natures of hell, and it also points the way for detailed and engaged comparative study.
Nerina Rustomji
American Historical Review
Alan Bernstein's expertise is on full display in this volume.... Bernstein displays absolute command of Christian conceptions of hell from 400 to 800 CE, the primary focus of this volume. Hell and Its Rivals provides apparently comprehensive coverage of Latin works about hell from this period, and the book will no doubt be indispensable for future research on these sources.... Bernstein's presentation of Latin texts is masterful.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of The Prince of Darkness With The Formation of Hell, Alan E. Bernstein established his reputation as a sophisticated historian of Hell. He is an authority I regularly turn to for questions about Hell, its sources, and its implications for society, piety, and culture. The appearance of Hell and Its Rivals, extending the time frame into the early and high Middle Ages, and encompassing Patristic, Byzantine, Rabbinic, and Islamic sources, is a welcome event.
Carol Zaleski, Smith College, author of Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times Erudite and readable, Hell and Its Rivals is the crucial resource for those interested in the formation of the doctrine of Hell over late antiquity and the early medieval period. Alan E. Bernstein has a remarkable knowledge of the relevant textual history of the period and of the details of the texts with which he deals.
Philip C. Almond, University of Queensland, author of Afterlife: A History of Life after Death This [book] allows readers to realize that hell in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is not just an everlasting realm of punishment after a literal death. Instead, hell is a result of negotiations and contestations within individual Abrahamic religious communities.... Hell and Its Rivals is a useful addition to eschatological study. It forces us to rethink the fixed and variable natures of hell, and it also points the way for detailed and engaged comparative study.
Nerina Rustomji
American Historical Review
Alan Bernstein's expertise is on full display in this volume.... Bernstein displays absolute command of Christian conceptions of hell from 400 to 800 CE, the primary focus of this volume. Hell and Its Rivals provides apparently comprehensive coverage of Latin works about hell from this period, and the book will no doubt be indispensable for future research on these sources.... Bernstein's presentation of Latin texts is masterful.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion