Dante's Inferno in the 21st Century

The other case is that God has his definition and understanding of sin that is not at all dependent on what people on Earth believe . This causes problems with our understanding because let ' s say Dante was wrong and Pier actually would have been able to reach salvation in the way that modern Catholicism believes ; Pier , who has by his definition betrayed the Lord by damaging a Godly possession and is unremorseful in doing so , goes to Purgatorio or Paradiso despite the fact that he went against the way of the Lord for his time period . This also calls into question all the decisions Dante has made in the novel as potentially not being representative of Divine intent . To Dante , Ugolino was a traitor to Pisa and was punished for betraying his nation , but perhaps to God Ugolino did the right thing for his nation in trying to avoid conflict with neighboring states and thus would be sent to Paradiso . By this standard , where God does not judge based on contemporary principles but rather just based on

His own unchanging values , any human interpretation of sin and judgement will inevitably be flawed . I cannot tell you which of these two theories on eternal judgement is correct , but which one we choose to read the text with does change the text ' s overall purpose . One can be used as a text to support religious beliefs of any time period , if you sin and disobey the contemporary religious ideas , you will be punished accordingly . The other , and to me more interesting , can be used to show how flawed the human understanding of morality is , and how impossible it is for human beings to judge one another without having an omnipotent perspective . Dante likely wrote the Commedia with the former in mind , seeing that he spends the entire story judging others . But by looking at the story with the latter in mind one can more easily look at the Commedia as a historical text and an understanding of how Dante , and likely much of medieval Italy , perceived sin .

WE SHOULD NOT DESPA I R OF THE ETERNAL SALVAT I ON OF PERSONS WHO HAVE TAKEN THE I R OWN L I VES . BY WAYS KNOWN TO H IM ALONE , GOD CAN PROV I DE THE OPPORTUN I TY FOR SALUTARY REPENTANCE . THE CHURCH PRAYS FOR PERSONS WHO HAVE TAKEN THE I R OWN L I VES . - CATECH I SM OF THE CATHOL I C CHURCH

Doré, Gustave. The Inferno Canto 13,