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The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
Hell Hath No Fury: Gender, Disability, and the Invention of Damned Bodies in Early Christian Literature
The first major book to examine ancient Christian literature on hell through the lenses of gender and disability studies
“Enthralling, engaging, and challenging. . . . [Henning] has successfully given hell the right sort of attention, at last filling a major gap in the story and simultaneously charting new territory.”—Jarel Robinson-Brown, Los Angeles Review of Books
Throughout the Christian tradition, descriptions of hell’s fiery torments have shaped contemporary notions of the afterlife, divine justice, and physical suffering. But rarely do we consider the roots of such conceptions, which originate in a group of understudied ancient the early Christian apocalypses.
In this pioneering study, Meghan Henning illuminates how the bodies that populate hell in early Christian literature—largely those of women, enslaved persons, and individuals with disabilities—are punished after death in spaces that mirror real carceral spaces, effectually criminalizing those bodies on earth. Contextualizing the apocalypses alongside ancient medical texts, inscriptions, philosophy, and patristic writings, this book demonstrates the ways that Christian depictions of hell intensified and preserved ancient notions of gender and bodily normativity that continue to inform Christian identity.
“Enthralling, engaging, and challenging. . . . [Henning] has successfully given hell the right sort of attention, at last filling a major gap in the story and simultaneously charting new territory.”—Jarel Robinson-Brown, Los Angeles Review of Books
Throughout the Christian tradition, descriptions of hell’s fiery torments have shaped contemporary notions of the afterlife, divine justice, and physical suffering. But rarely do we consider the roots of such conceptions, which originate in a group of understudied ancient the early Christian apocalypses.
In this pioneering study, Meghan Henning illuminates how the bodies that populate hell in early Christian literature—largely those of women, enslaved persons, and individuals with disabilities—are punished after death in spaces that mirror real carceral spaces, effectually criminalizing those bodies on earth. Contextualizing the apocalypses alongside ancient medical texts, inscriptions, philosophy, and patristic writings, this book demonstrates the ways that Christian depictions of hell intensified and preserved ancient notions of gender and bodily normativity that continue to inform Christian identity.
- GenresReligionNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2021
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January 12, 2022
What an excellent study. Henning evaluates early Christian tours of hell and the way that they conceive bodily abnormalities, primarily through the lens of gender and disability, and their relationship with concepts of sin and carceral punishment. She convincingly argues that conceptions of gender and disability both formed and were informed by these tours of hell, which serves to challenge our own conceptions about bodily abnormalities in the world today.
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January 20, 2022236.25 H517 2021
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews