In "Damn It All," Stephen Greenblatt's review of the book
The Penguin Book of Hell, the 2011 National Book Award-winning author of
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern expresses his sheer incredulity over how Christianity, from a contradictory jumble of ancient notions (Egyptian, Hebrew, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman), arrived at the full-fledged nightmare called "hell" that permeates its articles of faith and belief. He finds the book (Penguin, 279 pp., $17.00), edited by Fordham history professor Scott Bruce, "an anthology of sadistic fantasies that for millions of people over many centuries laid a claim to sober truth."
IMAGE CREDIT: PALAZZO DUCALE, VENICEHerri met de Bles: Hell, mid-sixteenth century
Observing that "In matters of faith, the boundary between make-believe and reality is porous," Greenblatt raises these disturbing questions: "What kind of God inflicts hideous tortures on those whom he does not like? Why did he not prevent the worst from happening? Or why, after some suitable term, doesn’t he at least bring the whole ghastly business of punishment to an end? What good is a penal sentence for all eternity? Does God enjoy the spectacle of so much suffering? If so, are we meant to join in the enjoyment?"
Greenblatt, one of the founders of New Historicism--a form of literary theory whose goal is to understand intellectual history through literature, and literature through its cultural context--admits that not for lack of trying, he's unable "to enter into a metaphysical system ruled by an omnipotent creator whose endless love is shadowed by an endless rage." He adds ruefully: "That system is precisely what swept the field for millennia and continues, if the current polling figures are correct, to be an article of faith for a majority of my fellow Americans, 58 percent of whom profess to believe in hell."
Read "Incredulous over an ever-loving omnipotent creator consumed by an endless rage" in the December 20, 2018 issue of The New York Review of Books now!RELATED WORK BY STEPHEN GREENBLATT:
"A recovered ancient manuscript changes the course of human thought"
