Is Hell a fable?

After he has sold his soul to Lucifer, Marlowe's Dr Faustus says to Mephistophilis, ‘I think Hell's a fable’. And Mephistophilis dryly responds, ‘Ay, Faustus, think so still, till experience change thy mind’ (Doctor Faustus, II, 1, 130–1). The dramatic irony of this exchange rests on the assumption that Faustus is wrong and the audience knows it. Faustus himself seems more ready to defy Hell than disbelieve in it; after all, he is conversing with a demon he has just summoned from the underworld. The medieval premise of this Renaissance play, that a region of eternal torment exists, might seem completely alien to a modern audience. But is there a sense in which Mephistophilis' reply remains true for us? Does experience teach us that Hell exists?

On the face of it, this idea seems implausible in the context of a modern, secular culture. Even religious communities in the West have modified their views on the subject of a punitive afterlife. According to the current Pope, Hell as a literal place to which sinners are sent after death is no longer part of official Catholic doctrine. Piero Camporesi begins his study of Hell in visual art by firmly separating pre-modern from modern views on the subject: ‘We can now affirm with some justification that hell is finished, that the great theatre of torments is closed for an indeterminate period, and that after almost 2,000 years of horrifying performances the play will not be repeated’ (The Fear of Hell, p. vi).