The Divine Comedy

Originally posted - Thursday, January 25, 2007


Dante Alighieri wrote a famous poem around the 14th Century titled "The Divine Comedy." I have only read part of it, but I have studied it (and I saw where he is buried in Italy when I got the chance to go in 2003). I want to talk about his work briefly.

The Divine Comedy is brilliant because it understands the problem of sin so well. I posted something recently on the subject of Sin. In the world of academics "sin" is a creation of religion to force control on the masses. It is someone's opinion forced on others. It is the hallmark of traditionalism that stands in the way of progress. Well, sometimes I question sin myself. I don't think I'll go into that here, but my point is this: Sin is negative whether God exists or not. Sin has to stand-alone if it is to be real. Okay, follow me on this. Sin has to be negative in this world, not just the next. That is to say, there really has to be a negative consequence for all sin for it to be real. It cannot just be sin because God declares it to be. There really has to be a problem with it. Atheists say (for argument's sake) that there is nothing wrong with lies as long as they don't "hurt" anyone. They will think of times when sin isn't anything but pleasurable for all those involved, and then they question what the problem is. Everyone enjoyed what they partook in, so how do you as a Christian respond to that?

In The Divine Comedy, Dante illustrates the problem of sin. His basic premise (though it is a story, not a thesis) is that people are in hell not for hating others or lacking love. They are in hell precisely because they loved. However, they loved the wrong thing. Dante's vision of hell doesn't have only "evil" people there. Remember in the New Testament where Jesus was asked about the 10 Commandments. He replied with a summation of the 10 being "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind." What was important in life, what matters to God is to be loved wholeheartedly. This is why David was loved so much despite all his "sins." Proper love is the determining factor for who goes to hell and who doesn't according to Dante.
The next interesting thing Dante writes is that Hell's punishment isn't some fire. Hell's punishment is you getting exactly what you wanted here on earth. Punishment for sin is "Just" because one's punishment is directly correlated to what one did.
Those who commit suicide are forced for eternity to search for their bodies. On earth they took life away from their bodies, so now they must eternally try to reconcile this.
Gluttons do nothing but eat all day in hell. What's the problem then? Well, they can never get their fill. They eat continually night and day, yet are always starving. The food they eat like pigs is their own excrement.

The lustful are blown by a never-ending wind. In life they were continually drifting from one person to another. They could never be fulfilled within their lust. The one they were with never satisfied. They had to drift to a new person. After having had them, they moved on.
The hypocrites are forced to wear a sparkling, beautiful coat lined with dull, heavy lead. For on the outside, they project one thing. However, in reality they are burdened down with their private falsehood.

This is brilliant and solves the question of sin that many may ask. "Why is this not good for me?" The point is that only God can fulfill in this life, yet in the next our relationship with him "never gets old." See in this life, our sins are good for a while yet we are never fulfilled. With God, our relationship with him never leaves us filling empty. In the afterlife, we will never say "I've had enough of this thing called God." Dante shows that every sin we are involved with on earth is something that we don't really want as much as we think. There is such a thing as "too much." We must love the right thing because for Dante, we will love this thing for all eternity. Hell is getting what you "want." This is why certain things are "sins." Our sin on earth is just small doses. We're not forced to pursue it unceasingly.

For more on this try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy