Nerd Herd’s Field Trip to the Pit of Eternal Damnation -Will Brady
Welcome to Hell, noble Honors students! This reading represents having a lot of schoolwork to do over spring break.
For those of you who've been here a while, this reading reminds me a lot of Milton's Paradise Lost... It's fictional, but it attempts to dig deep into Scriptural teaching (not in the same way or to the same degree as Milton's Eden fanfic, of course, but the similarities are there). Obviously, as an evangelical cynical of this kind of thing, I have one huge question: is the very premise of this entire poem Biblical? Are there levels of intensity in Hell where the punishment fits the crime? Lustful people are flying around like they flew from bed to bed (that’s what it made me think of, at least), gluttonous people are lazily flopped on the ground and eaten by the demondog Cerberus, etc.
To give a Biblical answer: well, yes, but actually no. the Bible doesn't teach about a variety of creative tortures for individuals, but some scholars believe that it does appear to teach different levels of intensity in the punishment of Hell. In Luke 10:12-14, Christ addresses unsaved people who openly rejected missionaries preaching the Word, stating that judgment will be more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom--cities that did not have the Truth preached to them as directly and therefore did not have as much of an opportunity to repent. Luke 12: 47-48 contains a similar message: "That servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating." Again, some people see a theme that knowledge of Christ equals accountability: the more knowledge you have without acting on it, the greater your accountability and more severe your punishment in judgment. (Some might say that this amounts to "ignorance is bliss," but ignorance still gets you eternal damnation the likes of which probably aren't done justice with the words "a light beating." None are without excuse in the judgment, as Romans 1:20-ish says.)
Now, is that what Dante is writing about? Ehhhh... Sorta. His idea of limbo seems to follow this, but the rest of the circles of Hell seem more dedicated to the nature of each man's greatest sin than anything. It's like he's teaching that some sins are objectively worse than others--I can't say I agree with his idea that lust isn't quite so bad as gluttony and lustful people are just flying around while gluttonous people have to get mauled by a dog in an unending freezing rain (and things get much, much worse later on). Sin is sin--I'm not saying that telling a white lie is as great an affront to the human race as genocide, but both are an affront to God and each is enough to damn man for eternity. Ascribing intensity of punishment just to the primary sin committed leaves me with questions—what if one unsaved man was just a little gluttonous but not lustful at all, while a second man was the most lustful to ever live, and his lust far eclipsed the first man’s gluttony. Despite the fact that the lustful man is only in the second ring of Hell while the slightly gluttonous man is in the third, does the extremely lustful man still somehow suffer more? In the Bible verses indicating possible levels of intensity of Hell, the intensity is dependent on the accountability of the man, not the nature of the man’s sin—and to be honest, that seems infinitely more reasonable.
One last complaint, why is a demon judging the dead and not God (or at least an angel, though that isn’t completely Biblical either)? I know this isn’t the final judgment at the end of time, but judging sinners isn’t the job of demons who are themselves guilty of the worst possible sin. Convicted criminals aren’t judges.
P.S. I commented on Breanna and Madison's posts.
For those of you who've been here a while, this reading reminds me a lot of Milton's Paradise Lost... It's fictional, but it attempts to dig deep into Scriptural teaching (not in the same way or to the same degree as Milton's Eden fanfic, of course, but the similarities are there). Obviously, as an evangelical cynical of this kind of thing, I have one huge question: is the very premise of this entire poem Biblical? Are there levels of intensity in Hell where the punishment fits the crime? Lustful people are flying around like they flew from bed to bed (that’s what it made me think of, at least), gluttonous people are lazily flopped on the ground and eaten by the demondog Cerberus, etc.
To give a Biblical answer: well, yes, but actually no. the Bible doesn't teach about a variety of creative tortures for individuals, but some scholars believe that it does appear to teach different levels of intensity in the punishment of Hell. In Luke 10:12-14, Christ addresses unsaved people who openly rejected missionaries preaching the Word, stating that judgment will be more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom--cities that did not have the Truth preached to them as directly and therefore did not have as much of an opportunity to repent. Luke 12: 47-48 contains a similar message: "That servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating." Again, some people see a theme that knowledge of Christ equals accountability: the more knowledge you have without acting on it, the greater your accountability and more severe your punishment in judgment. (Some might say that this amounts to "ignorance is bliss," but ignorance still gets you eternal damnation the likes of which probably aren't done justice with the words "a light beating." None are without excuse in the judgment, as Romans 1:20-ish says.)
Now, is that what Dante is writing about? Ehhhh... Sorta. His idea of limbo seems to follow this, but the rest of the circles of Hell seem more dedicated to the nature of each man's greatest sin than anything. It's like he's teaching that some sins are objectively worse than others--I can't say I agree with his idea that lust isn't quite so bad as gluttony and lustful people are just flying around while gluttonous people have to get mauled by a dog in an unending freezing rain (and things get much, much worse later on). Sin is sin--I'm not saying that telling a white lie is as great an affront to the human race as genocide, but both are an affront to God and each is enough to damn man for eternity. Ascribing intensity of punishment just to the primary sin committed leaves me with questions—what if one unsaved man was just a little gluttonous but not lustful at all, while a second man was the most lustful to ever live, and his lust far eclipsed the first man’s gluttony. Despite the fact that the lustful man is only in the second ring of Hell while the slightly gluttonous man is in the third, does the extremely lustful man still somehow suffer more? In the Bible verses indicating possible levels of intensity of Hell, the intensity is dependent on the accountability of the man, not the nature of the man’s sin—and to be honest, that seems infinitely more reasonable.
One last complaint, why is a demon judging the dead and not God (or at least an angel, though that isn’t completely Biblical either)? I know this isn’t the final judgment at the end of time, but judging sinners isn’t the job of demons who are themselves guilty of the worst possible sin. Convicted criminals aren’t judges.
P.S. I commented on Breanna and Madison's posts.
You make a lot of valid points however i have a few points of my own. On the topic of layers of hell and judgement, hell is a place where God is not and can not be therefore I do not believe his wrath is there either. So then perhaps He punishes people before sending them to hell. So then perhaps judgement comes before death and lasts throughout your life. Maybe, but still you will see bad people with good lives. Then judgement happens after death. Maybe it does happen in hell and those who are naturally more good at heart are better able to withstand this judgement and thus suffer less. or perhaps in the case of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom God shows pity on them and gives them more resistance to hell. A sort of cupon for a half off beating. Either way this is quite an interesting question.
ReplyDeleteThe rings of Hell confused me as well, especially in the case of Cantos Five with the story of the meek adultery.... (I actually talked about that in my blog post.) After all, should someone who stole $5 for food suffer as much as someone who stole $5,000,000 to send a terrorist attack? The topic of justification there is hard for me there, as personally, I do not see all sin as equal. I know God does, but does Satan? If Satan does, then that explains why there are people of differing degrees of the same sin receiving the same judgment and punishment for it. As Osten pointed out, God is not within the gates of Hell, so His judgment might not be the same in that aspect as Satan's, and since Satan is evil, I almost wouldn't expect them to be. We're only in the beginning of the book, though, so maybe as the book progresses it'll make more sense.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly!! As much as I'm enjoying this reading, I can't help but raise an eyebrow to a lot of the actual content, seeing as how Dante seems to be conveying this information as fact (which is problematic in itself for many reasons). It also doesn't make sense to me that demons would be ascribing punishment to anyone at all. Wouldn't it make more sense to just give the damned a friendly fist-bump since they're on the same side? Wretched sinners, for the win! All in all, I really have to question the basis of Dante's theology, but it's an interesting read nonetheless. You brought up a lot of great perspective for the questions I still hadn't figured out how to articulate.
ReplyDeleteThe punishments are supposed to be related to the crime. The lustful people are not just flying around, there are actually fused to the person they were lusting. Both of them are stuck together for eternity blowing around because they were not stable and faithful to the one they were supposed to love. The rain of the gluttons is not just freezing water, it is actually human excrement. They are being covered in the waste that they spent their whole life getting rid of. The whole point of Dante's Hell is the poetic punishments everyone gets. It's fun to see how the punishment fits the crime.
ReplyDeleteThe sanctions given are hilariously ironic in forcing the offenders to suffer with a strange punishment specially picked for their sin. I believe Dante intended to have a semi-biblical ( Which is still totally unbiblical) basis of Hell while deploying countless creative liberties to entertain the reader. I still find the limbo strange, but I think this was a clever method for Dante to include popular characters without angering those who sympathize with individuals such as Aristotle. As for the overall belief in levels of Hell, Luke 10 and 12 does provide some helpful insight, but I really doubt Jesus was thinking of raining poop on gluttons for eternity. Great analysis of Dante's attempts to appeal to the Bible!
ReplyDeleteI think one thing important to remember when reading through the level of punishments in the book is that Inferno doesn't exist in a vacuum, it was written by a human man during a very specific time in history. Where as today things like gluttony and lust might seem unequal to the human eye (even though we know all sin is equal), back in the period this was written, it might have seemed like gluttony was a worse crime because of the way the classes were set up and how food was distributed among these classes -- gluttony could lead to the idea that they were hoarding food, i.e. stealing it. (But that's just my take on that particular part.) Each punishment may be ironic, but it's important to remember this book was written not by a prophet stating facts, but by a simple man with his own thoughts and feelings towards certain sins.
ReplyDelete