The first major book to examine ancient Christian literature on hell through the lenses of gender and disability studies
In this pioneering study, Meghan Henning illuminates how the resurrected bodies that populate hell in early Christian literatureidash;largely those of women, enslaved persons, and individuals with disabilitiesedash;are punished after death in spaces that mirror real carceral spaces, effectually criminalizing those bodies on earth. Contextualizing the apocalypses alongside ancient medical texts, inscriptions, philosophy, and patristic writings, this book demonstrates the ways that Christian depictions of hell intensified and preserved ancient notions of gender and bodily normativity that continue to inform Christian identity.
