Nothing makes you think about hell like Dante's Inferno. Or at least humanity's relationship to it depending upon one's beliefs.
The thing that struck me the most about the story wasn't so much the differing levels of hell as much as the juxtaposition of human experience (knowledge) and the place of the spiritual being. They're always at odds. Dante begins his journey stating he "went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood." Dante has taken the route of worldliness and has found himself in a state of darkness. For all you religious, particularly biblical scholars out there, the worst place to be is in a state of darkness and far from God. Apparently, this is where Dante found his fictional self. This straying led to hell.
While I'm definitely not here to present a commentary on the Holy Scriptures or any specific religious beliefs, I do think there's value in understanding human reason, the spiritual experience, and how they may benefit from each other. Although this is not meant to be a review (you'll have to wait for the next post!), the one thing that struck me as particularly unbearable was the idea that knowledge, or at least a heavy reliance on it, leads to damnation. And there is the balancing act. How do we maintain a grip on the rapid and varying streams of knowledge while also developing some kind of spiritual health. Makes me think of the Scripture concerning serving God and money: you will love one and hate the other. In this way, a person has to make up his or her mind about what matters to them most. But does it have to be that way? Can we be both learned of the world and of the spirit? Do we really have to chose? Can we love them both? Don't we need the both of them? Can't they inform each other?
I guess we'll have to figure that out for ourselves.
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