Hell Is Getting A Makeover From Catholics; Jesuits Call It a Painful State But Not a Sulfurous Place – The New York Times

Dante's poem The Inferno for 700 years has provided vivid inspiration to painters and preachers, who have kept alive popular vision of hell as physical place of fire and brimstone, extraordinary torments and monsters; many artists added their own ideas; Catholic authorities in Rome have presented strikingly different picture of eternal damnation; say hell is best understood as condition of total alienation from all that is good, hopeful and loving in world; say condition is chosen by damned themselves, and is not punishment engineered by God; photo (M)