Dialogic Notes on the Origins of the Ambivalence of the Concept of Hell in Western Culture: The Sacred-Prosaic Simultaneity

Magalhães, Anderson Salvaterra; Mattos, Carlos Eduardo de Araújo de

doi:10.1590/2176-4573e63330

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ARTICLES • Bakhtiniana, Rev. Estud. Discurso 19 (1) • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/2176-4573e63330 copy

Dialogic Notes on the Origins of the Ambivalence of the Concept of Hell in Western Culture: The Sacred-Prosaic Simultaneity

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to identify the verbal-ideological conditions in which Judeo-Christin values in tension in the conceptualization of hell are installed as Western collective memory even out of the religious segment and, this way, frame a cosmovision. Theoretically, the discussion is preponderantly based on a dialogic reading (BMV Circle) of the Halbwachian notion of collective memory and on a socio-cognitivist approach to polysemy. Methodologically, apocrificity is used as a resource to trace de conceptual path constituting the semiosis of hell in dialog with canonical texts. The paper demonstrates that hell, by compressing the transit between cultures and by permeating Christian values in other fields of ideological creation, activates a moral-causal domain that, at the same time, defers to these values and denies their religious principles, making the sacred and sublime also prosaic. The sacred/prosaic ambivalence that occurs not alternatively, but simultaneously, as typical of the dialogic tension, frames a collective structure of memory.

KEYWORDS:
Collective memory; Fields of culture; Christianity; Apocrificity; Semiosis

Text	Classification in the religious field	Approximate dating
Jeremiah	Canonical prophecy	End of the 6^th century BC
Nehemiah	Canonical chronicle	Mid-6^th century BC
Joshua	Canonical chronicle	From the 7^th to the 4^th century BC
Psalms	Canonical poetry	2^nd century BC
Mark	Canonical gospel	Between 66 e 70 AD
Matthew	Canonical gospel	80 AD
Luke	Canonical gospel	110 AD

Text	Classification in the religious field	Approximate dating
Apocalypse of Peter	Christian Apocryphal Apocalyspe	Mid-2^nd century AD
Acta of Thomas	The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles	Mid-2^nd century AD
Acta Philipp	The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles	Mid-4^th century AD
Apocalypse of Paul	Christian Apocryphal Apocalyspe	End of the 4^th century AD
Apocalypse of Zephania	Jewish Apocalipse	5^th century AD
Gospel of Nicomdemus	Apocryphal gospel	Mid-5^th century AD

LAEL/PUC-SP (Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Linguística Aplicada e Estudos da Linguagem da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo) Rua Monte Alegre, 984 , 05014-901 São Paulo - SP, Tel.: (55 11) 3258-4383 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: bakhtinianarevista@gmail.com

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[1] Translated by Anderson Salvaterra Magalhães - asmagalhaes@unifesp.br

I	And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee. (Jeremiah 19.2)
II	Zanoah, Adullam, and in their villages, at Lachish, and the fields thereof, at Azekah, and in the villages thereof. And they dwelt from Beersheba unto the valley of Hinnom. (Nehemiah 11.30)
III	And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward. (Joshua 15.8)
IV	If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. (Psalm 139.8)

I	And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9. 43-48)
II	Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (...)And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25.41; 46)
III	And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Luke 16.22-23)