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Article: The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Theological Studies
- Article date:
- September 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Theological Studies, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Alan E. Bernstein. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1993. Pp. xiii + 392. $32.50.
A study of ideas about the final destiny of the wicked. More specifically, it explores why and how the idea of punishment in the after-life arose. Is this idea peculiar to Christianity? Or does the Christian belief in some form of other-worldly punishment develop through the interaction of the biblical tradition with ideas and images in the cultures and religions of antiquity?
Bernstein, associate professor of History at the University of Arizona, takes the reader back many centuries before the time of Jesus to search out the varied notions about the fate of the dead as this ...