There were parts of this which I found quite interesting, and I might have enjoyed it more if I'd been clear from the outset on Sweeney's premise. Well, that's not true. I wouldn't have picked it up at all if I'd understood his premise. I thought that this would be a book about the development of the concept of Hell. And it is, sort of. Only Sweeney takes the position that the Old and New Testaments do not actually provide much support for places of after-life punishment or reward. His claim is that a Christian idea of Hell developed gradually during the Middle Ages, but that it wasn't until Dante artistically combined ideas about the Hebrew's Sheol, the Greek's Hades, Plato's “Myth of Er,” bits from Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, and some ideas from the Qur'an into the Hell that he presents in the Divine Comedy that our modern understanding of Hell was born.

Actually, by about Chapter 6, Sweeney's description of the elements that might have gone into Dante's development of the concept of Hell becomes pretty intriguing. I hadn't made the connection between the Greek figure of Hades and Dante’s Satan, which Sweeney presents persuasively, and he pulls together plenty of other material that may have influenced Dante's creation. Anyway, the second half of the book was going well for me (though with some hints of what is ahead: “We live in a century when there seems to be no end to specific teachings about Heaven and Hell, their characteristics, wonders and inhabitants...” p. 104), until around the end of the next to last chapter, when Sweeney starts his laundry list of Things I Hate About Dante.

And Sweeney is entitled to hate Dante. Though I wish I'd known that up front. What I really object to is his claim that Dante is damaging because Christians today take his description of Hell literally. He says, “But here's the problem: Millions of other people haven't treated what they've found in Dante's Hell as allegory. They've made it into gospel. When a Christian preacher threatens his audience with Hell, it is Dante's Inferno that he's most often depicting, whether he realizes it or not” p. 169. Really? Dante's Hell? I'll admit that, as an Episcopalian, I may hear fewer fire and brimstone sermons (as in, pretty much none) than your average Baptist, but I would be willing to bet that even most Baptist preachers (and I apologize for picking on Baptists, but the last time I heard a fire and brimstone sermon was when visiting a Baptist church) rarely if ever preach on the nine circles of Hell, Charon, or sins such as gluttony and simony. The claim that modern Christians are taking Dante's Hell literally just seems absurd. And his other two complaints about Dante – that he prefers the classical virtues of “heroism and courage” to Christian virtues, and “his politics” (Sweeney never goes into why Dante might have been so keen on a strong central government, simply labeling him “a man who would even have made a willing fascist”) – are tacked on as surprising and unsupported jabs at the last minute. Sweeney then wraps up his last chapter with a several page diatribe against the concept of Hell. “We need more than Hell as a deterrent, for ethics is not the same thing as loving your neighbor. Virtue is not born out of fear... Also, for every person who has lived an ethical life because of the threat of Hell, there are ten whose lives have been ruined because the same threat was used as a way of wielding power over others – a power that is no person's to wield.” (p 172). Okay! I'm pretty sure that few of Sweeney's readers have been refraining from lives of unrestrained wickedness purely on account of fear of Dante's Hell, but it is kind of him to want to free us all from this anxiety.

As I said earlier, the book has some good stuff. It's a quick read, and worth looking at. However, in addition to the rant at the end, Inventing Hell suffers from quite a few sloppy generalizations (“Hesiod was a man of more personality than Homer.” p. 50), some poorly supported claims, an excessively flippant tone throughout, extravagant use of exclamation marks, and a writing style which sometimes seems more geared toward a grade school audience ( “Poets were a society's historians. They were the ones who were charged with remembering a people's laws and customs, as well as the origins of life itself. This is why Homer and Virgil wrote epic poems: because they had such big stories to tell!” p. 64) than the subject matter would lead one to expect. These are only sporadic problems, but I found them a little annoying. I would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't gotten the impression that Sweeney considers his readers to be a little dim.2015-reading-challenge8 s Carlotta4

This is a great book, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. I challenge every Christian here to read it with an open mind and to question the real source of their own understanding of Hell.

There is very little written about Hell in the Holy Bible. Pretty much everything we believe that we know about Hell actually comes from the mind of Dante Alighieri and was written in his masterpiece, Inferno. Dante was a bitter and angry man who relished creating a Hell of eternal torment for all those he despised. He wrote with such passion and brilliance that we have incorporated his creation into our Christian definition of Hell ... even though it is not supported anywhere in the Bible. Dante's continued influence is absolutely amazing, yet few people realize that he is the actual author of the Hell in which we believe.

I received a free copy of this book after entering a giveaway here at Goodreads. What an amazing gift! It was a privilege to have the opportunity to read it. Jon M.Sweeney, you are an exceptional writer. Don't ever stop!!!3 s Micaela Hardyman143 1 follower

For a lot of this book I found myself not quite getting the point, although I found a lot of it very interesting. However, the conclusion of the book made it all worth it for me, as the author points out the ways that Dante’s Inferno has been weaponized in many unhelpful ways. There’s a true danger to making this allegory “gospel” and I’ve certainly witnessed the implications of this error firsthand.

“We need more than Hell as a deterrent [from evil], for ethics is not the same thing as loving your neighbor. Virtue is not borne out of fear… for every person who has lived an ethical life because of the threat of Hell, there are ten whose lives have been ruined because the same threat was used as a way of wielding power over others - a power that is no person’s to wield. Those who have held Hell’s pitchfork over others’ heads have created more Hell throughout history than they’ve helped others to avoid.” 2 s Terence1,188 428

DNF - Wow...this is just awful. Poorly researched and poorly written.

Not worth anyone's time. You could learn as much browsing the Wikipedia article on the subject (and it'd be better written).religion-christianity religion-general religion-judaism2 s joseph715

The author does a great job of intellectual history in showing the roots of the ideas that Dante developed in his poetry. It is serious but with some light touches, such as each chapter has a subtitle written on a "Dante's index card". One particular idea that I found profound was the discussion about Plato/Socrates exposition of the eternal soul - a concept not directly pronounced in the Bible. Saint Paul introduced a lot of Greek philosophy into Christianity.

The author has a very personal conclusion to this work where he discusses whether we, modern people. need the concept of hell as Dante has painted it or not.

The book is written for the general public (otherwise I probably would not have read it) and I recommend it especially to provoke those ideas about how poetry/mythology shapes thought.

I found a provocative quote from Santayana in it "Truth is only believed when someone has invented it well." Nearby there is a quote from Peter Barnes, "History is not history unless it is imagined. No one I know was present in the distant past, so the past, the future, is an act of the imagination."2 s Ed CyzewskiAuthor 32 books118

A fascinating overview of the mythology and biblical background of hell and the sources that gave shape to the hell created by Dante in his Inferno. While it seems that the author assumes Dante's version of hell has shaped our modern understanding of hell, especially in conservative circles, I wish he would have drawn more connections between Dante and today. However, it's still a very helpful book in tracing the evolution of the afterlife in Jewish, Greek, and Christian thought. 2 s Jill10

I believe that the bible translations have altered the Bible and what was "the spirit of the law" since man starting recording history. This book actually gave me hope for humanity. I still believe in a GOD. I just can't align myself with the modern evangelical movement, and this helps to explain why.2 s MichaelK256 14

Our popular conception of Hell is very medieval rather than biblical: it owes more to Dante than to the Bible, and Dante's Hell owes more to Greek myth than it does to the Bible. In this slim volume, Sweeney takes us through the development of the Medieval Christian view of Hell, which finds its ultimate expression in Dante.

In the Old Testament, there is very little mention of the afterlife. Sheol, the ancient Israelite underworld, is a dark, gloomy, underground place where people go to 'rest with their ancestors' after they die. It's an inevitable, bland destination, not a place of reward or punishment.

The afterlife changes with the influence first of Zoroastrianism, then with Greek myth and philosophy. The Greek god Hades, a colourful character rules a slightly sadistic underworld with ironic punishments. The Elysium Fields, where the chosen of gods go for an afterlife of happiness.

Platonic philosophy teaches the immortality of the soul in more detail than the Bible. There was already monotheism in the Roman Empire by the time Christianity arrived, but Plato's religion was elitist, reserved for the rich higher-ups. Christianity popularized Platonic monotheism; the Gentile converts to Christianity knew little about the Jewish traditions they were supposed to be succeeding, and so turned to what was more familiar to them: Greek Philosophy. Early theologians thought Socrates et al were precursors of Jesus, sent by God to prepare the gentiles for Christianity. Paul, in his letters, and Socrates, in his dialogues, seem to echo each other - Judah had been conquered by the Greeks, who had attempted to Hellenize their culture. The Romans, who had adopted Greek culture as their own, continued to spread its ideas and myths to the Jews. Paul was a well-educated 1st century Jew.

Early and Medieval Christianity expanded on the Jesus myth with a range of apocryphal gospels and 'expanded universe' stories. On Holy Saturday, after his death but before Resurrection, Jesus descended into Hell to rescue the righteous who lived and died before him (they would have been automatically ineligible for salvation) - confronting, overpowering, and therefore enraging Satan in the process, leaving him more resolved to make the sinners suffer, taking his anger out on them. Before Dante, there were a bunch of other 'tours of the afterlife' narratives which are almost short prototypes for the Divine Comedy.

Scholastic theologians, Thomas Aquinas chief among them, spent a long time thinking about angels and demons. Aquinas was a massive influence on Dante; Aristotle was a massive influence on Aquinas. More Greek philosophy, merged with Christianity over a millennium after the crucifixion, re-introduced to Europe by way of Arabic translations of the original Greek re-translated into Latin. Christianity becomes not just Platonic monotheism repackaged, but Aristotelian theology re-interpreted with biblical images.

The Prophet Muhammad turns up in Dante's Inferno. Arabic translations had brought Aristotle back to Europe. By Dante's time, there were at least two (known) Latin translations of the Qur'an. It is not, therefore, impossible that Dante was inspired by the Qur'an's many, many, many descriptions of a fiery tortuous afterlife for sinners.

Inventing Hell's overview of these Hellish sources of inspiration is enjoyable, fast-paced, and actually quite fun. Sweeney's writing style is chatty and easy-reading, and the jokes are not cringeworthy. The book is, however, obviously very simplified for a popular audience, and felt a little too short. It is not a work of scholarship, but as an introduction or a refresher, it is really very good. I would have been quite happy if it was a bit longer, with more details on the sources, the philosophy, the myths, the 'expanded universe' stories, etc.

The final chapter, in which Sweeney explains why he doesn't Dante and hopes Hell will become less important to the Christianity of the future, felt a rushed conclusion. The author is too eager to distance the Bible and Christianity from Hell, minimizing the fact that, despite the manifold extra-biblical influences on the idea of Hell, a punishing afterlife is still part of the New Testament. If you were able to remove the legacy of Dante and the Medieval Hell from Christianity, the fires of torment are still there. Sweeney comes across as in denial about the Bible's contents, wanting to push the aspects of Christianity he diss onto Dante.

"Ultimately, I choose not Dante's vengeful, predatory God who is anxious to tally faults, to reward and to punish. Instead I choose the God who creates and sustains us, who is incarnate and wants to be among us, and the God who inspires and comforts us. That God is the real one, the one I have come to know and understand, and that God has nothing to do with the medieval Hell."

This sounds nice, but ignores the vengeful, predatory God of the Old Testament (see Leviticus chapter 26 for one example of many), who obviously doesn't originate with Dante. It ignores Jesus' God, who will throw the goats into the fire, will burn the chaff of humanity in a big bonfire. It ignores the God of the epistles, who will do similar. It ignores the Jesus of Revelation, who will slaughter his way across the Earth, crushing people in 'the great winepress of the wrath of God', etc. Yes, Dante's sadistic afterlife isn't very nice, and the God who oversaw it wouldn't be very nice, but if you could strip Greek myth and philosophy from Medieval Christianity, leaving only the biblical influences, you'd still have a vengeful and capricious God. Sweeney comes across as someone who wants to be Christian because they've always been one, but, now they've matured, they don't want to be associated with all the crueler, sinister aspects of the Christian and Biblical traditions, so shift the blame for that onto something - in this case, Dante and his Greek influences - which they feel they can reject while leaving their faith broadly intact. It's an amusing, but unconvincing, display of mental gymnastics.

In conclusion: this book is good for its quick summary of the evolution of Hell, but unconvincing in the author's goal of distancing Hell from the Bible and Christianity.religion-history1 Jim82 1 follower

I have mixed feelings about this book. I give the Conclusion a 5 and the rest of the book a 2. Sweeney demonstrates mastery of the subject and he quotes some of my favorite people, Yeats, Rohr and Merton...but his attempts at humor are a bit lame. In addition, Sweeney employed some engaging images and devices -- showing us at the outset of every chapter what Dante's index cards might have looked -- but at the same time this edition is filled with typos and other printing mistakes. I never know what to make of that. At any rate, it's a quick read and I learned a lot about Dante's sources.1 Joy Matteson610 56

I found this book to be an utterly fascinating read exploring the connections between our 21st century perceptions of Hell and Dante's 13th century perception of Hell. I was amazed at the overlap. If you've read at least these two sentences, let me add a few more that will say it's worth your time--I don't think I've read a book about hell that's easy to read, has a few laugh out loud moments, with a few pop culture references peppered throughout. This book has all three.
Such as, "If you happen to be Catholic, you probably grew up thinking that Thomas Aquinas was the fine silver flatware that your mother removed from the mahogany cabinet on only the most important occasions. If you went to a liberal arts college, you probably have an image of Thomas Aquinas as chief of the medieval theologians." Okay, maybe not laugh out loud funny, but still quirky. I quirky.
Also, did you know that Dante also pulled from the Quran for the idea behind the fiery flames that never go out? In any case, and regardless if you believe in a literal hell or not, this book is worth your time, if only for the engaging literary comparisons.christianity eschatology1 Brianna Brennan260 4

4.5 stars

This book was quite the eye opener. As someone who grew up Calvinist, I understood from a very young age that a good portion of people were predestined to burn in hell for eternity. I was never taught where this idea of hell came from, only that it was true and biblical and my destiny if I did not believe in Jesus’ saving power. Naturally, a book this is shocking and even prompted anger at how little I was taught about the real origins of Christian’s “hell”. After finishing this book, I feel taking a copy of Dante’s Inferno and whacking every self righteous pastor over the head with it for all the fire and brimstone sermons I’ve listened to over the years. Go read some Dante and see that your precious hell is a made up myth.

I took half a star since the ending left me wanting a bit more context for how Christianity used Dante’s inferno after it was written. The author does a brilliant job leading up to the writing of the inferno and explaining the creation of modern day he’ll, but we don’t get to see how the inferno influences Christian’s after the fact, other than our own experience. 1 Chuck Knudsen729 5

I thought this was a really interesting book. Basically, most of what we know about the Christian hell has little to no foundation in the Bible. Rather, it is cobbled together by several Middle Age writers (and, largely, Dante with his Inferno) from Greek and Roman sources. I would to read a more detailed scholarship on hell, but this was interesting.1 Steve137 1 follower

This read was more fun and worthwhile than expected. Sweeney's desire is to unpack the historical philosophy/theology on which contemporary Western Christianity (and religious traditions in general) images of hell are constructed. Starting with ancient and Biblical writers, he pays the groundwork for how Dante is a product of his age. Sweeney unpacks Dante's historical context, his personal politic and history. From this, one can see the logic and psychology of Dante's artistic work. Finally, Sweeney gives both is praise of Dante's artistic and literary genius as well as a critique of post-Reformation fear mongering by those using Dante, not as metaphor, but in literalistic ways. Simply, many Western Christians treat Dante's poem as if it were literal, sacred text - and most Christians are totally unaware of how their images of hell (and heaven) are influenced.

And, frequently, Sweeney does this with a good sense of humor.history Twilight O. ?86 30

Closer to a 2.5/5.0.

I was quite disappointed with this one! While it's full of great information, it never quite congeals. I kept waiting for everything I was reading to click together and it just never did for me. It doesn't help that this is a topic I'm very nearly burnt out with. His thesis, that the image of Hell most Christians today believe in comes from Dante's vivid poetry rather than the inspired word of God, is frankly old hat to me. Inventing Hell isn't a bad book, but there are better ones already out there on the same subject; Razing Hell by Sharon Baker comes to mind. It might not go into the same detail on the Dante connection, but it goes much deeper into the theological implications of what it means to challenge that vision of Hell. fangly9

i loved this informational guide through how hell came to be in the modern sense. i loved going through this in passing and catching up with tidbits about how we came to see hell, and by extension, the devil as fire and brimstone. i give this four stars not because the writing was at all bad. it did catch me in passing. it just didn't give me that buzz that i get when i read five star books that urges me to continue reading at any cost. maybe if i try it again i will get that feeling but not currently. Mysteryfan1,692 20

A very interesting read. He focuses on late BCE to early CE writers such as Ovid, Homer, Aeneas and Virgil, as well as the Old and New Testaments to discuss concepts of the afterlife. And he talks about how Dante shaped our concept of Hell. I think his conclusion can be summed up as "Do good now, bcause no one really knows if there's an afterlife or what it might consist of." His discussion of the Old Testament and Paul was enlightening.nonfiction religion Ceciliahill55218 3

This was definitely a fascinating book that describes how the image and where the idea of Hell came from. It gave me plenty to think about and to discuss. I've had a hard time believing in the concept of Hell for quite some time and this went into much history and the early writings regarding this concept, so if you've ever wondered where the concept and descriptions of Hell were derived, this is a must read. Judy398 1 follower

Sweeney presents a wealth of information about the development of the concept of Hell in the Christian religion. He explains the beliefs about the afterlife that Dante may have drawn on as he wrote The Inferno, which is the basis for popular current ideas about Hell. The historical information is well worth the read. Nick58

This is a super interesting and well-written look at Dante and his inspirations/influence. It's worth the read for that. But as a theological look at the Christian doctrine of hell it should be treated as barely introductory at best. Nathan95

4.5 stars Rick Edwards298

Sweeney did not bring me any surprises. As a seminary trained pastor and preacher, I knew the Hell of popular imagination is Raz162 2

Super interesting look at where our current idea of Hell comes from and places Dante's work in context while being really easy to digest! Andrea Norton155 5

Review to come Tom30

This book provides great insight for writers on how to craft a story, in the case, Dante’s Inferno. The connections to Greek philosophers and myths was eye-opening. Andrew75 45

Hell is empty. favorites spirituality Greg Dill750 19

Quite the eye-opener. Sweeney does a terrific job showing how Dante in his book "Inferno" created the Hell that many Christians have come to understand (and believe) as dogma today. But, more surprisingly, much of what Dante used to create his version of Hell was primarily extracted from ancient Greek lore, philosophy, Thomas Aquinas, the Quran (yes, the Quran), but very little from the Bible.

The words that many people assume to mean Hell in the Bible (i.e. sheol, Hades, Gehenna, Tartarus) are in fact nothing to do with the eternal fiery Hell that many have come to believe today. Nor is the person of Satan a being, but instead an adversarial force.

Furthermore, some of the parallels between the Greek's view of the afterlife (eternal life, heaven, and hell) and the Apostle Paul's writings regarding the same are remarkably similar. Perhaps Paul was more educated in Greek philosophy than what we thought. But, the notion of an eternal consciousness where both body and soul exist in the afterlife was a completely dismissed notion by most people of antiquity especially among Jews of Paul's time.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that Dante's Inferno has always meant to be read allegorically, not to be taken literally, but as metaphor. Unfortunately, when today's Christian preachers teach about Hell, they are more or less teaching Dante's Inferno whether they know it or not.

A bit wordy at times, I glossed over some of it, Inventing Hell is a good book to read. If you are the type who has questioned the nature of Hell or even its existence, this will only bolster your doubts about this controversial subject. I highly recommend, Inventing Hell. James1,502 115

In Inventing Hell Jon Sweeney makes the uncontroversial claim that our image of hell owes more to Dante than it does to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Dante himself combined his reading of the Bible with pagan poets, Greek Mythology (particularly Hades), the Greek philosophical idea of the immortality of the soul, and Islamic ideas about retributive justice in the after life.

Despite the back cover identifying Sweeney as a 'independent scholar' this is a popular level book and accessible to the lay reader. Sweeney is entertaining and occasionally whimsical. But this isn't a deep book by a long stretch. He summarizes the Inferno in a few pages, talks briefly about the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, before turning to Dante's other source material. Here he is largely dependent on the more careful and nuanced work of other scholars. Jeffery Burton Russell comes to mind as historian who has traversed the same ground with a little more depth, detail and skill.

I would disagree with Sweeney's reading of biblical texts and their significance. I also think he dumbs down Dante too much. But his main point is well taken, our imagination about hell is often more medieval than biblical. Lupe Dominguez606 53

"Midway upon the journey of our life/I found myself within a forest dark/for the straightforward pathway had been lost"

This is in fact, how I felt when I originally read Dante's The Divine Comedy. Reading this walkthrough of the history of it with Mr. Sweeney was incredibly helpful. Witty and smart, Mr. Sweeney combines historical, factual and biblical instances with the reading ease of a fiction novel. There were a few times where his Catholic faith would sometimes take off on his other wise pretty unbiased writing, but I was able to over look it. The ending chapter, however, seemed to me to be more of a "Hey, check out Catholicism, it's awesome!" which was too much for me. All in all, this was actually a very helpful walk through of Inferno and I appreciated it for the historical and biblical concepts as well as the mythical allegories and period pieces incorporated throughout. Very informative and I said, I chuckled a few times. :)historical-non-fiction non-fiction spiritual Naum160 20

Our notion of *hell*, according to Mr. Sweeney, has more to do with Dante who was influenced by 13C currents of Islam, Aquinas, Plato, & Greek mythology. And it is light years apart from what early Christians would have conjured about the concept of *hell*. Sweeney introduces each chapter with an "index card" summarizing a theme Dante was riffing on.

The opening chapter offers a condensed TL;DR of Dante's great work.

A good, breezy read (I finished this in just a few hours).

While I'm sympathetic to the position, I'm not sure Sweeney is convincing here -- this book would have to be more than ~200 pages, and go into more detail on how this medieval transformation of thinking about *hell* came about. There is cursory coverage, but some more detail will be necessary to definitely advance this thesis. Grits Helme90 1 follower

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