O monstruoso na versão latina do Apocalipse de Paulo (séc. V)

Uma aproximação literária e histórica

Abstract

This article analyzes the Latin version of the Apocalypse of Paul, likely composed in Italy in the late fifth century, through a literary and historical approach. The aim is to understand how the monstrous figures and infernal scenes described in the narrative function as pedagogical and disciplinary instruments within Western Christianity. Drawing on Jeffrey J. Cohen’s monster theory, the study interprets these images as symbolic constructions that reflect the anxieties, tensions, and strategies of moral control characteristic of a Christianity that, while hegemonic, was marked by internal disputes and conflicts. The methodology combines textual analysis with tools from cultural history, relying on primary sources and relevant historiographical support. The findings show that the hell depicted in the Apocalypse of Paul not only conveys divine punishment, but also serves as an inverted mirror of the Christian community, projecting spiritual failure onto monstrous forms for those who do not conform to the idealized Christian way of life. The text thus emerges as a rhetorical device in the service of identity construction for a vigilant and ascetic Christianity amid the political and social fragmentation of the Western Roman world.