Some Brief Notes About Hell

What is hell? Yes, Kathy, now I have jumped off the deep end.

I can remember being asked once to draw heaven in a Bible school class. I drew a picture of someone climbing up a hill and then sliding down only to begin again. My thought was that the greatest pleasure in life was achieving something (I suspect the thought was more in Bible school age language) and so heaven must be the continued effort without it really mattering if you got anywhere or not.

Only later did I hear about the the Greek myth of King Sisyphus who for eternity was required to push a boulder up a hill in tartarus, the hellish part of the Greek's underworld, only to see it roll down again.

My childhood drawing of heaven looked a lot like the Greek's conception of hell. Back to the drawing board.

From childhood sermons I had heard of a hell of fire and brimstone. Later I read Jonathan Edward's sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God:"

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.

I wasn't sure I could swallow that idea of God or hell, but the language still holds me spellbound.

When I read Dante's Inferno in college, my imagination of the sophistication of hell increased. I was particularly struck by the varieties of hell for different types of sinners. Also, I had never thought of Satan in a frozen center, so that was fun. A couple of years ago, I read a murder mystery, The Dante Club, by Mathew Pearl. I enjoyed it and also enjoyed revisiting various types of Dante's punishments. It features Longfellow, who by the way, wrote some of my favorite translations of Spanish literature.

Milton's hell seemed like a great adventure for me. I read Paradise Lost in college. I was of an age when the adventure of being in hell plotting a revenge against heaven was much more appealing to me than Milton's paradise. I agreed with the proposition: To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.

I also read about Sartre's hell being other people in "No Exit." It did not hold me spellbound.

For some reason, I have been fascinated by the contemplation of hell. It makes me feel better, but I am not sure why. I know my conception of hell is simple, simple, simple. Maybe, as I approach that seventh decade, I should think more deeply about the subject.