Alice K. Turner > Quotes

“Snakes in the ancient world, because of their skin-shedding ability, often symbolized immortality or eternal youth.”
― Alice K. Turner, The History of Hell

“One of the less savory notions of the early Church was that of the abominable fancy, the idea that part of the joy of the saved lay in contemplating the tortures of the damned.”
― Alice K. Turner, The History of Hell

“Theologically, Hell is out of favor now, but it still seems more "real" to most people than Fairyland or Atlantis or Valhalla or other much imagined places. This is because of the sheer mass and weight and breadth of ancient tradition, inventive fantasy, analytic argument, dictatorial dogma, and both simple and complex faith employed over a very long time- thousands of years- in the ongoing attempt to map the netherworld. The landscape of Hell is the largest shared construction project in imaginative history, and its chief architects have been creative giants- Homer, Virgil, Plato, Augustine, Dante, Bosch, Michelangelo, Milton, Goethe, Blake, and more.”
― Alice K. Turner, The History of Hell

“The landscape of Hell is the largest shared construction project in imaginative history, and its chief architects have been creative giants- Homer, Virgil, Plato, Augustine, Dante, Bosch, Michelangelo, Milton, Goethe, Blake, and more.”
― Alice K. Turner, The History of Hell

“No other religion ever raised Hell to such importance as Christianity, under which it became a fantastic underground kingdom of cruelty, surrounded by dense strata of legend, myth, religious creed, and what, from a distance, we might call dubious psychology.”
― Alice K. Turner, The History of Hell