Alan E. Bernstein is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Arizona. He is the author of The Formation of Hell.

• IntroductionPart I. Foundations1. Gregory the Great: Order in Chaos2. Inner Death: Hell in the Conscience3. The Punishments: Slavery, Torture, and HellPart II. Alternatives to Hell4. Exceptions to Hell: Relief and Escape5. Calibrated Justice and Purgatorial Fire6. Visions: Rights to SoulsPart III. Hell in Abrahamic Religions7. Rabbinic Judaism: One Fire, Two Fates8. Byzantine Universalism: The Path Not Taken9. Islam: The Mockers MockedConclusion

Alan Bernstein's expertise is on full display in this volume.... Bernstein displays absolute command of Christian conceptions of hell from 400 to 800 CE, the primary focus of this volume. Hell and Its Rivals provides apparently comprehensive coverage of Latin works about hell from this period, and the book will no doubt be indispensable for future research on these sources.... Bernstein's presentation of Latin texts is masterful.(Journal of the American Academy of Religion) This [book] allows readers to realize that hell in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is not just an everlasting realm of punishment after a literal death. Instead, hell is a result of negotiations and contestations within individual Abrahamic religious communities.... Hell and Its Rivals is a useful addition to eschatological study. It forces us to rethink the fixed and variable natures of hell, and it also points the way for detailed and engaged comparative study.(American Historical Review) Hell and Its Rivals is a tour de force of comparative religious history. With its wide chronological scope and geographical purview, it provides an unparalleled examination of teachings about the punitive afterlife in early medieval monotheistic faith systems(Speculum) The advantage of a relatively comparative study on the subject, he argues fairly, is that it helps us to push past the idea of hell as a 'biblical' concept, and towards seeing it as a much-contested idea that had different resonances across cultures and depending on context. His modus operandi...is...traditional, with readable recitations of what key sources say to evoke important moments in the history of an idea. Bernstein's brief conclusion offers an effective recap of key ideas.'Hell survives', he argues, 'because it is socially useful'. For highlighting interesting points of comparison between different religious cultures, on the other hand, I think scholars will find parts of Bernstein's study useful.- James Palmer, University of St Andrews (Early Medieval Europe)