The History of Hell (Harvest Book): Amazon.de: Alice K. Turner, Donadio &. Olson: Englische Bücher

Taschenbuch: 288 Seiten
Verlag: Harvest Books; Auflage: Harvest. (September 1995)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0156001373
ISBN-13: 978-0156001373
Gr��e und/oder Gewicht: 25,2 x 17,7 x 1,8 cm

Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.6 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (10 Kundenrezensionen)

Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 349.647 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)

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From Booklist

Belief in a hell or some sort of afterlife has been intrinsic to the religions of the world ever since the first stories were shared aloud and incised in clay tablets. Turner's richly illustrated history surveys the myriad forms hell has taken in the West from Sumer to Rome and beyond. Hell has always been a more inspiring concept for theologians, poets, and artists than heaven, which is somehow more metaphoric and, let's be frank, dull. Hell is, by definition, brutally concrete, a place of heat and agony, a catalyst for the imagination to conjure up all manner of gruesome details. Turner traces the evolution of hell's topography and terrors from descriptions in the Egyptian Book of the Dead to classical Hades, retelling old stories of the underworld and working her way towards the visions of Christianity. Turner summarizes hell according to Virgil, Dante, Marlowe, Goethe, Milton, and Swedenborg and notes that the most fertile time for full-blown concepts of Hell was during the medieval era when wildly literal and gory scenarios thrilled and frightened the populace much like horror movies do today. An original, knowledgeable, and fluid presentation. Donna Seaman -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

From Kirkus Reviews

Just in time for Halloween: a pop guide to the hells of the Western world. Turner, longtime fiction editor of Playboy, intends her study to be ``geographical rather than theological or psychological.'' That is, she focuses on the outer aspects of hell--landscape and inhabitants--rather then their raisons d'ˆtre. In slick, superficial vignettes, she scurries through an enormous number of underworlds, together comprising ``the largest shared construction project in imaginative history.'' Her chronological survey begins in Sumeria, with Inanna's descent to visit her sister Ereshkigal, then moves on to Egyptian, Zoroastrian, Greek, Roman, Gnostic, and Judeo-Christian images of the netherworld. In the Middle Ages, imaginative tours of hell become popular, and purgatory was tacked on as an expiatory antechamber. Dante changed everything by turning hell into allegory, leading to literary fancies by Goethe, Milton, Byron, and Rimbaud, among others. Science, too, dismantled hell- -after early attempts to situate it on the Sun or a comet, materialists relegated it to the imagination. These days, says Turner, ``hell has become something of an embarrassment.'' Her tour is fast and fun, but by eschewing psychology and theology, she trivializes her subject into a set of colorful comic books with almost no hint of the mythological and metaphysical dynamics involved (the few explanations she does offer are reductionist- -e.g., that hells exist to foster earthly political or social power). Disappointing, too, is her failure to explore contemporary belief in hell (shared by 60% of Americans, according to a poll she cites). Sleek but shallow--and doesn't hold a candle to its counterpart, Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang's Heaven: A History (1988). (Illustrations: 32 pages color, 30 b&w) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Very well written 25. M�rz 2000

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

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.

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Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... 22. Februar 2000

Von Jason Rees

And this book sets out to prove it. While very informative about our society's beliefs and attitudes towards Hell, the author doesn't seem capable of stopping there. From taking potshots at Agnostics to rewriting the Christian book of Revelation, she relentlessly attacks every form of organized religion on the planet. She takes postmodern thinking and promotes it as fact. She can't get past the first two pages without presenting what she believes is the average Christian: an impossibly confused lacky of Christian dogma who can't possibly understand what their religion dictates.

While her venom towards her nemesis is understandable, (being involved in the porn business tends to put one at odds with the Christian Right)it is unbecoming, and diminishes what could have been a truly exceptional book.

Enter to the realm of Satan! 17. Februar 2000

Von William Errickson Jr.

Format:Taschenbuch

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....