Religion in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy

Dante’s Divine Comedy is not a true example to the catholic faith. It should not be recognized as a theologically written book, but rather a fictional book that uses Catholic Christianity and Political biased views to give the author his “world/underworld”. If I was going to say though that what Dante wrote in his novel was whole heartedly what he thought hell, purgatory, and heaven was like; then I would have many theological differences between his feelings of the afterlife and mine.

Dante’s Inferno was split into nine sections in Hell, and as you went deeper the pain and torment of the sinners got worse. In Canto V Dante talks about how he and Virgil go out of limbo in the first circle and into the second circle, “a smaller circle of so much greater pain”. Because of this, the reader can deduce that Dante believes that some sins are greater than others and deserve worse punishments. After talking to the Deacon of the Catholic Church, we have also learned that the Catholic Church as well believes some sins are worse than others and in repentance, need Higher-up people to be able to “forgive”.

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Obviously in the Bible it tells us that all sins are worth the same (maybe besides Blaspheme because of Mark 3:29), from murder to a white lie everything sin you commit is the same in God’s eye. The reason why the Catholic people believe that some sins are worse than others is because of their own flesh.

It’s hard for us to think that stealing a bag of chips is equal to killing a person. Obviously we as people see a natural scale on what we feel is bad and worse. But the Differences in Dante’s work and religion and mine are still numbered.

First off, as I was saying this long poem is nothing more than a fictional story. So anyone can read it, Christians, non-Christians, Satan worshipers, satin worshipers, anyone who would want to read an Old Italian poem! That being said if one were to think that this somehow represents the Christian religion, they would be very wrong. For one we don’t actually know that much about hell. Just that it is without God completely, there are gnashing of teeth, and that there is or will be a lake of fire. Some Christians feel that because God is not there, it will be really cold actually. This is because of the missing warmth of God’s love. But other than that hell is really up to anyone’s interpretation, just consider it to be a really horrible place. But the hell in Dante is still fictional, because like all epic journeys through fictional work, there is a metaphorical hell or underworld that the main character has to go through. This one is just a little more literal. But it’s essential to Dante’s quest. He can’t get to heaven without seeing and going through hell. Just like in all other quests. The main character has to partake in a hard lesson or see horrible stuff, maybe just to appreciate what there prize is in the end. In Purgatory Virgil tells an angel “…we are also pilgrims, come before you only by very little, though by away so steep, so broken, and so tortuous the climb ahead of us will seem like play.” After landing at the bottom the way up to your goals gets easier. And at the end you appreciate all of what you went through to get to there.

The biggest difference of the Catholic Faith verses the protestant Christian faith is Purgatory. Dante’s purgatory is an actually place, a mountain in fact. One that Christians who know God have to go through to be cleansed of their sins. “I came back from those holiest waters new, remade, reborn, like a sun-wakened tree that spreads new foliage to the spring dew… perfect, pure, and ready for the Stars.” But the Catholic people believe that purgatory is not a place but a “state” one goes through. After one has died, if they did not get to confess their sins, they have to go through this state of guilt while in heaven until they can be absolved of their unforgiven sins. Well this cannot work because God cannot be in the same place sin is, and so if you have “unforgiven sins” you can’t go and hangout in heaven. But if you believe that Jesus forgives all sins and covers our blemishes and makes us whole and we don’t need to atone for our sins then it would be okay to go to heaven as imperfect people, because Jesus makes us perfect by his sacrifice.

When Reading the Divine Comedy, you have to have the mindset that it is a book of Fiction and it does not correctly describe what the Christian Catholic faith believes in. Other than that, both the books theology and the Catholics is very different and not biblical compared the theology of the Protestant Christian. But you can read this book for fun, as an adventure and journey, just don’t read it to learn more about the afterlife, because it is all biased and cannot be considered fact.