Bibliography:
Books and Online Reading
The following
books and online materials, among many other sources, provided information included
in the articles on this website.
PLEASE NOTE:
Inclusion of items in this bibliography should note be taken as
an endorsement of the total content of the book or website
listed. It is merely an indication that the item contains
information and commentary of interest to those wishing to
investigate the topics of Hell and the Afterlife.
WebLinks
PLEASE NOTE: Inclusion of a link
on this list is not a blanket endorsement of everything
on the website in question. It is merely an indication that the
content of the specific material linked may be of interest to
readers in considering some of the points made on this Is It
True What They Say About Hell? website.
Sparknotes summary of
Inferno
Cliff Notes summary of
Inferno
“Book Hell”
Summaries of a number
of books about hell, including those by Jonathan Edwards,
John Furniss, more
Critical
Issues Commentary: Visiting Heaven and Hell
Book Review re: Mary Kay
Baxter, Divine Revelation of Hell; Jesse DuPlantis,
Heaven--Close Encounters of the God Kind
Book Review
of Mary Kay Baxter's Divine Revelation of Hell
Biblegateway.com
Searchable versions of many
classic and modern Bible translations, including KJV, NKJV,
NIV, NASB, AMP, NLT and more
Online New Testament Greek Lexicon
Based on Thayer's
Greek-English Lexicon and Smith's Bible Dictionary
Online Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon
Based on the Brown,
Driver, Briggs Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon
BOOKS
Encyclopedia of Hell
Van Scott, Miriam; Thomas Dunne
Books, NY; 1998.
Amazon.com
book description:
The
Encyclopedia of Hell is a comprehensive survey of the
underworld, drawing information from cultures around the
globe and eras throughout history. Organized in a
simple-to-use alphabetic format, entries cover
representations of the dark realm of the dead in mythology,
religion, works of art, opera, literature, theater, music,
film, and television. Sources include African legends,
Native American stories, Asian folktales, and other more
obscure references, in addition to familiar infernal
chronicles from Western lore. The result is a catalog of
underworld data, with entries running the gamut from
descriptions of grisly pits of torture to humorous cartoons
lampooning the everlasting abyss. Its extensive
cross-referencing also supplies links between various
concepts and characters from the netherworld and provides
further information on particular theories.
The
Formation of Hell:
Death and Retribution in the
Ancient and Early Christian Worlds
Bernstein, Alan E.; Cornell
University Press, NY; 1993.
Amazon.com
book description:
What
becomes of the wicked? Hell--exile from God, subjection to
fire, worms, and darkness--for centuries the idea has shaped
the dread of malefactors, the solace of victims, and the
deterrence of believers. Asking just why and how belief in
hell arose, Alan E. Bernstein takes us back to those times
and offers us a comparative view of the philosophy, poetry,
folklore, myth, and theology of that formative age.
The
History of Hell
Turner, Alice K.; Harcourt,
Inc., Orlando et al; 1993.
Amazon.com
reader review:
The book
begins with the earliest recorded tradtions of the
Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians and their ideas of the
afterlife and the Underworld and how these notions greatly
influenced later cultures and religions like Ancient
Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christiantiy, and Islam. She
relates the traditions of the Greco-Roman Underworld and all
the attendant gods and goddesses and how it is with Greek
and Roman literature that the Infernal regions begin to grow
in prominence. It is however in Chritianity that the notion
of an Infernal Underworld of pain, torture, and enternal
suffering for sinners and evil-doers comes to the real
forefront. Christianity is the only religion that seems to
place such heavy emphasis on the existence of a place of
eternal damnation, where demons torture the souls of the
deceased and the Devil presides over all. Turner examines
the literature of St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante,
Milton, and others, as the myths of Hell grow and change
over time to become the popular notion we still hold today
of Hell as a place of fire, brimstone, and torment, as well
as the effect of art in the common perceptions of Hell.
Life
After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion
Segal, Alan F.; Doubleday, NY
et al; 2004.
Excerpt
from Amazon.com Publisher's Weekly review:
In every
culture, people ask the same fundamental questions about
their existence, including "what happens after we die?"
Although Segal maintains that answers to that question lie
"beyond confirmation or disconfirmation in the scientific
sense," he offers a comprehensive overview of how the
afterlife is understood in the three main Western religions.
He thoroughly examines early influences from Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Canaan, Iran and Greece, then analyzes Jewish
views as expressed in the first and second temple periods,
the book of Daniel, the Dead Sea scrolls and writings from
and about New Testament times, the early rabbis, mysticism
and fundamentalism. For Christianity, systematic attention
is given to Paul, the Gospels, the pseudepigraphic
literature and the Church Fathers.
This site contains a collection
of articles, on the topic of Hell and the Afterlife, that may
each be used independently for research purposes. But it also is
designed as a systematic, sequential overview of the whole
topic, which can be read like a book.
For those who would like to take
advantage of this perspective of the content, the articles are
arranged in the
Reading Guide as they would appear as chapters in a book, along
with a few reference chapters at the end such as would appear in
a book Appendix.
Use the
links below to go to the next article, previous article, or
first article
in the Reading Guide sequence.
