Damed Bodies: Hell and Theodicy in the Late Ancient Latin West
Date of Award
Spring 2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Religious Studies
First Advisor
Doerfler, Marie
Abstract
This dissertation examines the ways that descriptions of damned bodies function rhetorically to communicate ideas about divine theodicy through a study of three textual sites from the late ancient Latin West: the Apocalypse of Paul, Augustine of Hippo’s City of God, and the stories of miraculous deaths from Gregory of Tours’ Histories and Miracles. Hell was a particularly useful theological sites for working through questions of God’s relationship to and care for the world because its form, function, and duration were all unsettled well into late ancient Christianity, and concerns about theodicy were tied up in the doctrine from the first century. As each of these texts shaped ongoing conversations about hell, they focused their attentions on the bodies of the damned, and used them as means to also speak to concerns about who God is, and how God acts towards sinners.Through literary and theological analysis of these texts, this study aims to highlight how vivid descriptions of a body that burns, is tortured, and experiences pain eternally are, by the authors selected here, invoked as proof of God’s justice, goodness, mercy, and power – the elements of divine theodicy. Literary depictions of the damned in hell were meant to form ancient audiences to see God as in control of the universe, and working for the good of faithful Christians. By using the body in pain and tying it to theodicy, these authors were engaging in the work of subject formation, imparting their theologies to their diverse audiences.
Recommended Citation
Misgen, Sara A., "Damed Bodies: Hell and Theodicy in the Late Ancient Latin West" (2023). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1012.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1012
