The Formation of Hell

Early Christians

According to a History Channel special on Hell [1], the first thousand years of Christianity had no real emphasis on Hell, but rather, I assume, on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Neither the writings of Paul nor the majority of the Gospels specifically address Hell [8]. The Gospel according to Mathew is the only Gospel that takes an admonishing tone, warning of the darkness (25: 30) and the furnace of everlasting fire (13: 50, 25: 30) [8]. That being said, Hell is best (only?) described as a physical place in the Bible in the Gospel of Luke, when the rich man, who rejects the beggar Lazarus, dies and speaks with Abraham from the flames of Hell (16: 19-31) [8]. Punishment for sin varies throughout the Bible; in the Old Testament, it is frequently a curse from God (reflective of its Greek and other Pagan ancestors), and in the New Testament, it is often simply death, as stated in the Book of Romans: “The wages of sin is death” (5: 6) [8].

The Book of Revelation, which differs greatly from rest of the New Testament, addresses Hell and punishment, but only in terms of the End Times. While the End Times have been important for Evangelicals, this isn’t a subject I want to focus on (it really deserves a whole discussion to itself). I do believe though that the imagery of fire and grotesque monsters in Revelation has helped shape our image of Hell in general and outside of the apocalypse.

Early Gnostic Christians rejected the existence of Hell altogether, but instead believed that life on Earth was something of the sort, and that Jesus came to Earth to save us through gnosis, or secret knowledge [8]. Gnosis was too esoteric to spread the way stories of a burning and fear giving Hell would, so this version of the story took a back burner to what would become canon [8]. One thing the Gnostics and other Christians agreed upon was that the Earth was in the hands of the Devil and that Earthly bodies were evil and gross [8].

Some scholars mark the beginning of the turn towards sin and Hell as a theological interest at the publication of St. Augustine’s Confessions [1]. When St. Augustine published his Confessions at the end of the 4^th century, many Christian readers began to think about sinfulness and their eventual fate [1]. Augustine describes a fiery Hell as the punishment for the unsaved [8]. The Confessions also sends a message that even after years of pagan decadence, all hope is not lost, which was likely an attractive idea for new converts.

Middle Ages

The attributes of Hell and Satan didn’t really become convention until the Middle Ages [8]. The Middle Ages were a time of great theological development in Christianity in which Christian scholars began asking question about their beliefs and trying to solve some of religion’s greatest puzzles. A rediscovery of Aristotle’s work had a great influence on Christian thinkers of the time, creating an interest in logic and rationalization of Christian doctrine [8]. It’s important, however, to mind that theology didn’t necessarily represent popular belief.

In small towns and villages, weekly sermons may have been the only source of entertainment [8]. When the Church realized that stories about Hell brought more spectators to the pews, hellfire and brimstone quickly became common subjects of the sermons [1]. The narrator of the History Channel special [1] compared Hell to horror films – such sermons touched a nerve for fear and excitement – and Church leaders used them to increase the Church’s power in numbers. One could also make the Machiavellian argument here, and say that fear is more convincing than love, Hell a more powerful tool than Heaven.

The obsession with Hell in the Middle Ages appears not only at the pulpit, but in literature, artwork, and theatre, as well. We have a plethora of religious art from the Middle Ages depicting the depths of Hell and stories of Satan and other Hell dwellers. Satan is frequently depicted in blue, to show his distance from the warmth of Christ, and as enemies of the Church (i.e. Jews or Muslims) [1].

While Hell is directly discussed very little in the Bible, Christians began to seek out symbols and signs of the Devil and his kingdom, finding him even in the Old Testament. For example, the snake that tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden was originally just a snake (a serpent?), though many Christians interpret the tempter as a manifestation of the Devil [1].

Some less doctrinal literature of the Middle Ages, frequently influenced by Norse mythology, adopted a more fanciful view of Hell, a place of adventure and excitement [8]. One author went so far as to have his protagonist desire Hell: “old priests, old cripples, old maimed, who hunch in front of altars and old crypts day and night, and those in ragged old cloaks and old rags, who are naked and shoeless and dying of hunger and thirst, cold and misery. They go to Paradise, and I want nothing to do with them,” [Aucassin et Nicolette, 8]. This sentiment might represent the non Christian of the era; however, most literature of the time was dominated by the clergy.

A more typical genre of the time were vision tours, in which the protagonist is guided through the underworld, and then, perhaps, Heaven, as well [8]. Such visions frequently described a bridge crossing over the typical river to Hell – sometimes a “black, smoky river” and sometimes a river of fire – as well as unpleasant smells and sounds, such as evil laughter [8]. One describes people emitting flames from their mouths and noses [8].

Dante’s Divine Comedy is probably the most popular vision tour and was quickly translated into nearly every European language [1], and thus has been a defining image of Hell in Western culture. Dante borrows a number of images and concepts from the Greek afterlife, including the river of Acheron, which in the Divine Comedy, must be crossed to enter the gates of Hell [3]. An interesting event concerning the river in the Comedy is that the souls of the damned turn from fearful to desiring while crossing the river as a means of weeding out good souls [3]. In other words, those sinners who feared their fate while on Earth crawl willfully to their punishment from the shores of the river.

Dante also, like other visionaries, elaborated on the sensational experience of hell, the awful sights and smells, the “horrible dialects, accents of anger, words of agony,” [3]. As in the Book of Enoch, Dante’s Hell also has “eternal shades in heat and frost” [3]. The top few circles, with the exception of Limbo, are merely eternal storms, but as we step down the ladder, turn into rain of fire, and eventually, in the ninth circle, home to history’s greatest traitors – Lucifer, Judas, Brutus – is a frozen lake [3].

As far as I have read, Dante is the first to organize sin and punishment so thoroughly, perhaps a reflection of the hierarchical organization of the Catholic Church. Dante divides hell into nine circles to appropriately treat the severity of each person’s sins. The first circle, also known as Limbo, belongs to the virtuous pagans and the unbaptized; the second to the wanton; the third to the gluttonous; the fourth to the avaricious and the prodigal; the fifth to the irascible and the sullen; the sixth to the heresiarchs; the seventh to the violent; the eighth to the fraudulent and malicious; and the ninth to traitors [8].