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The Fear of Hell is a provocative study of two of the most powerful images in Christianity--hell and the eucharist. Drawing on the writings of Italian preachers and theologians of the Counter-Reformation, Piero Camporesi demonstrates the extraordinary power of the Baroque imagination to conjure up punishments, tortures, and the rewards of sin.
Camporesi argues that hell was a very real part of everyday life during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Preachers portrayed hell in images typical of common experience, comparing it to a great city, a hospital, a prison, etc.; the horror lay in the extremes to which these familiar images could be taken. The city of hell was not an ordinary city, but a filthy, stinking, and overcrowded place, an underworld 'sewer' overflowing with the refuse of decaying flesh and excrement--shocking but not beyond human imagination. What was most disturbing about this grotesque imagery was the realization by the people of the day that the punishment of afterlife was an extension of their daily experience in a fallen world.
The eucharist, or host, represented corporeal salvation for early modern Christians and was therefore closely linked with the imagery of hell, the place of perpetual corporeal destruction. As the bread of life, the host possessed many miraculous powers of healing and sustenance, which made it precious to those in need. When received properly, the host was a source of health and life both in this world and in the world to come, though for those who ate the host unworthily there was the prospect of swift retribution.
Written with style and imagination,
The Fear of Hell offers a vivid account of themes central to Christian culture, whose influence can still be found in our beliefs and customs today.
List of contents
Note to the Reader
PART I Hell 1 The House with Three Floors 3
2 The Doubtful Eternity 24
3 Scruples and "Counterfeit Chimeras" 41
4 The "Unhappy Country" 54
5 The Foul Smelling Drains" 59
6 The Laughing God 90
7 From the Heart of the Earth to the Sun 100
8 The "Soft Life" and "Weak Sinners" 108
PART II The Host 9 The Stolen Ciborium 125
10 The "Stupendous Excess" 135
11 The Mysterious Food 146
12 In the Pit of the Stomach 166
13 The Horror of the Guts 182
Notes 191
Index 215
About the author
Piero Camporesi (1926-1997) was formerly Professor of Italian Literature at University of Bologna, Italy.
Summary
Examines Hell and the Eucharist, the images and representations of salvation and perdition. The author draws on the preachers of the Counter-Reformation to show how the idea of Hell evolved. He counterpoises this with a description of the mystical virtues with which the Host was invested.
