Beautiful, awesome, kick-arse book! I was impressed with the level of knowledge behind the author. She sure did her homework, to the max.
This book takes you back as far as the Mesopotamian and Egyptian beliefs in Hell, or Hades, or the Great Below, and brings you all the way up to the modern day Hell of Christianity, (I think my only disappointment was that it did not cover the Islamic Hell, which is also quite interesting). There's also a great deal of illustrations from artists dating back to the Dark Ages.
Although this book mostly deals with the Hell of Christianity, it can show how the Jewish religion (preferably the Jews from 200 to 100BC), and early Christians could have very well adapted, or adopted those same ideas into their theology, but with more of a sadistic theme behind it. As you read, you get to "visit" every age of Christianity's past that had to do with Hell, the millennium that followed the fall of Pagan Rome up until the Renaissance or rebirth of the classical approach to learning, (a thousand years sometimes refered to "the age of visions."), to the time of popular Mystery Plays, and of course, the infamous divine comedy "Dante's Inferno.” But there is so much more!
If you're interested in learning about Christianity's Hell, and also earlier accounts of “The Great Below” from older religions, and if you love colorful and authentic illustrations from the past, you have GOT to read this amazing book!!!
This book takes you back as far as the Mesopotamian and Egyptian beliefs in Hell, or Hades, or the Great Below, and brings you all the way up to the modern day Hell of Christianity, (I think my only disappointment was that it did not cover the Islamic Hell, which is also quite interesting). There's also a great deal of illustrations from artists dating back to the Dark Ages.
Although this book mostly deals with the Hell of Christianity, it can show how the Jewish religion (preferably the Jews from 200 to 100BC), and early Christians could have very well adapted, or adopted those same ideas into their theology, but with more of a sadistic theme behind it. As you read, you get to "visit" every age of Christianity's past that had to do with Hell, the millennium that followed the fall of Pagan Rome up until the Renaissance or rebirth of the classical approach to learning, (a thousand years sometimes refered to "the age of visions."), to the time of popular Mystery Plays, and of course, the infamous divine comedy "Dante's Inferno.” But there is so much more!
If you're interested in learning about Christianity's Hell, and also earlier accounts of “The Great Below” from older religions, and if you love colorful and authentic illustrations from the past, you have GOT to read this amazing book!!!
P.S. I personally do not belive in Hell, at least not the way it's been described through Orthodox Christianity (no pun intended), but I do enjoy the "mythology" of it, very fascinating.
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