The Formation of Hell

"An absorbing history."—Washington Post Book World

Alan E. Bernstein is Professor of History at the University of Arizona.

This book displays the breath and breadth of life in history more than any merely analytical study could do. It illuminates and deepens us with its humanity and its rare lucidity of style.

Tony Gray:

Bernstein's study is captivating, and should certainly become the standard work on the history of... an important image in Western civilization.

Robert G. Clouse:

Bernstein draws on sources from Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Israel as well as the early Christian community to reconstruct the story of the various poets, priests, and religious leaders who fashioned concepts of hell based on ideas of death and justice.... This book is an outstanding account of a central image of Western thought and should be of interest to students of history, religion, literature, philosophy, and mythology.

Frances Taliaferro:

An absorbing history.

Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity:

The Formation of Hell is learned and accurate; it is sensitive; it is subtle and sophisticated; it is historiographically sound; it is written with great clarity and refreshing freedom from jargon. This will be the standard work for many decades to come.