Dante's Divinely Inspired Comedy

The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri contains the Inferno (Hell Journey), Purgatorio (Purgatory journey), and Paradiso (Paradise/Heaven journey) is considered one of greatest pieces of poetry, and world literature to ever have been written. Many Protestants may pause at Dante's journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. It might interest most Reformed brothers and sisters in Christ that Dante did not invent his visit to the Inferno, nor did he produce the Paradiso from his imagination; Dante admits that he saw both in an out of body experience and vision while dreadfull ill and on his sickbed. The Purgatorio or Purgatory was never seen by Dante Alighieri, in fact, it was produced on being pressured by the Papacy that became concerned Dante makes no mention of it (Dante was threatened, probably with Excommunication, which would have harmed his poetry, and perhaps even a burning pyre for 'heresy' by the Inquisition) this is why Purgatorio is so similar to the Inferno. Purgatory was a doctrine created by St. Augustine of Hippo who wanted his unbelieving friends to merit their way to heaven outside the Gospel. Augustine used the gnashing of teeth and the outer darkness as his foolproof examples, but Jesus Christ makes it clear the gnashing of teeth is hell, "And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:42), which then clarifies what the outer darkness is, "But many Israelites--those for whom the Kingdom was prepared--will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."(Matthew 8:12).




The Divine Comedy, the Inferno and Paradiso I believe were witnessed by Dante in the spirit, and that there are many prophetic elements to these peoms. Dante makes a claim that Hell has many rings or levels, and that heaven or paradise has levels and orbs; well this is supported by Scripture "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven." (2 Corinthians 12:2). The fact Paul calls it a third heaven, indicates that there are other levels. In addition, the Revelation of John decribes a New Heaven, "Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea." (Revelation 21:1, cross ref. Isaiah 55:17). Dante speaks of God's throne being at top level of heaven, this is called the Empyrean,
"Like sudden lightning scattering the spirits
of sight so that the eye is then too weak
to act on other things it would perceive,

such was the living light encircling me,
leaving me so enveloped by its veil
of radiance that I could see no thing.

The Love that calms this heaven always welcomes
into Itself with such a salutation,
to make the candle ready for its flame." (Paradise, Canto XXX). Dante's description is quite similar to when the Apostle of John goes before the throne of God, "At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal." (Revelation 4:2-6).

Dante describes his ascent into the orbs and levels of heaven in this canto, "Transhumanize" it cannot be explained per verba, Whether it as the last created part of me alone that rose, O Sovereign Love, You Know Whose light it was that lifted me," (Paradise, Canto I, The Portable Dante, pg 394, verse 70, Musa' commentary: 70: a state Dante the Pilgrim becomes
"transhumanized" and enters a state beyond mortal explication, a state that cannot be explained with words (per verba)," and "If I was body (on earth we cannot think, in terms of solid form within a solid, as we must here, since body enters body),
then so much more should longing burn in us to see that Being in Whom we can behold the nion of God's nature with our own." (Paradise Canto II, The Portable Dante, pg 398). Dante divuldges that he cannot be sure if he is in his body or out of it in poetic style, well the Apostle Paul says the same thing in the Bible, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). The Apostle John decribes this experience that Paul and Dante mention in this way, "At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald." (Revelation 4:2-3). Dante calls it Transhumanized, The Apostle Paul caught up and in or out of body is unknown, and the Apostle John calls it in the Spirit.

Beatrice, Dante's guide through Paradise, describes what Jesus Christ had to die for the sins of mankind, and she nails it on a Biblical level, "Now listen well, for what I have to say contains the doctrine of important truths. Because for his own good, he would not let his will be curbed, the man who knew no birth, damming himself, dammed all his progeny, therefore, the human race lay sick below within their error for long centuries, until the Word of God chose to descend: there, moved by His unselfish Love alone, He took unto Himself, in His own Being, that nature which had wandered from its maker. Now listen to my reasoning, once joined with its First Cause, this nature was (as it had been when first created) pure and good; but by itself alone, by its own act, having abandoned truth, and the true life, out of God's holy garden it was chased. Then, if the Crucifixion can be judged as punishment of that nature assumed, no penalty could bite with greater justice, just as none could be judged as more unjust, considering the Person who endured it with whom
that other nature was combined. Thus, one event produced different effects; God and the Jews both pleased by this one death for which earth shook and Haven opened wide. Now it should not be difficult for you to understand the concept of just vengeance being avenged in time by just decree. You say: I clearly understand your words, but why God did not choose some other way for our redemption still remains unclear. The reason. brother, for that choice lies buried from all men's eyes until their inner sight has grown to ripeness in the warmth of love, nevertheless, sicne men have always aimed their arrows at this mark they rarely strike, I shall explain why this choice is bvest. Divine goodness, which from itself rejects all envy, sparkles so, that It reveals the eternal beauties burning in Itself. That which derives directly from His Being from then on is eternal, for His sewal, once it is stamped, can never be effaced. That which derives directly from His Being is wholly free, not subject to the law of secondary things. Created thus, it most resembles Him, most pleases Him; the Sacred Flame which lights all of creation burns brightest in what is most like Himself. These are the gifts with which humanity was privileged, and if it fails in one of these, it must fall from its noble state. Sin is the only power that takes away man's freedom and his likeness to True Good, and makes him shine less brightly in Its light; nor can he win back his lost dignity unless the void left by tha sin be filled by just amends paid for illicit joy. Your nature, when it sinned once and for all in its first root, was exiled from these honors, as it was dispossessed of Paradise; nor could mankind recover what was lost, as you will see if you think carefully, except by crossing one of these two fords: either that God, simply through clemency, should give remission, or that man himself, to pay his debt of folly, should atone. Now fix your eyes on the infinity of the Eternal Counsel; listen well, as well as you are able, to my words. Given his limits, man could never make amends, never in his humility could man, obedient too late, descend as far as once, in disobedience, he tried to climb, and this is why mankind alone could not make his amends to God. Thus, it remained for God, in His own ways (his ways, I mean, in one of them or both) to bring man back to his integrity. But since the deed gratifies more the doer, the more it manifests the innate goodness of the good heart from which it springs--so, then, that Everlasting Goodness which has set its imprint on the world was pleased to use all of its means to raise you up once more. Between the final night and the first day no act so lofty, so magnificent was there, or shall there be, by either way, for God, Who gave Himself, gave even more so that mankind might raise itself again, than if He simply had annulled the debt; and any other means would have been less than Justice, if God's only Son had not humbled Himself to take on mortal flesh. " (Paradise, Canto 7, The Portable Dante, pg 429-432). This sounds very Pauline, compare it to His letter to the Phillippians, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:5-11). The statement where Beatrice says man cannot make amends was attempted throughout the Old Testament (Tankh),  but Hebrews testifies how only the Blood of Christ is sufficient to make amends, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." (Hebrews 9:11-28).

Dante through his experience in Paradise prophecies the coming of the Protestant Reformation, He says, "The Gospel and the fathers of the Church lie gathering dust, and Canon Law alone is studied, as the margins testify.
The Pope and Cardinals heed nothing else; their thoughts do not go out to Nazareth where Gabriel once opened wide his wings.
But Vatican and every sacred place in Rome which marked the burial-ground of saints who fought in St. Peter's army to the death, shall soon be free of adultery." (The Divine Comedy, Paradise, Canto IX,  pg 446, The Portable Dante, Penguin Classics). Martin Luther wrote a famous work called "The Babylonian Captivity" which documented how the Roman Catholic Church has held the Church captive like Babylon did the prophet Daniel and the Jewish People; the Church of Rome held the church captive by hiding the Scriptures and instead emphasizing Sacraments, Canon Law, and other practices like Indulgences which do not appear in any of the words of the Apostles, nor The Alpha and Omega. As Dante shares about the rulers of the Catholic Church, they are concerned with Canon Law, well this allusion "shall soon be free from adultery" could be prophesying the coming of the Reformation that removed the adultery of Canon Law, which was three hundreds years after Dante heard these words and put them to paper. It could have Revelation ramifications, for Babylon the Harlot is a city, on seven hills, which is Rome (see Revelation 18). How did Dante get away with penning these words? Well part of it is a Lutheran or should I say Danteian idea that Luther then did, Dante wrote in common vernacular, the languages of his people, just as Luther would use German rather than Latin. This allowed the Divine Comedy to spread across countries rapidly, before the Papal Curia could crush it and quell it; just as that same Papal Curia could not quell Martin Luther's words.

These are merely a sampling of what Dante saw from damnation to the Dawn of Paradise. Dante wanted to profess he had seen hell and heaven, but the Roman Catholic Church forbade him and instructed him to call it poetry and allegory. An observer who knows the Bible well can see how Dante is sharing exactly what is contained in Divine Scripture. His experience lines up with the Bible in many areas, but I cannot as of yet claim his Comedy is truly in synch with Divine Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16). What I can say, is like Thomas A. Kempis' The Imitation of Christ, Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy is an anomaly in the Middle Ages. Kempis told his readers to put asides the Cult of Saints and seek Christ Jesus, and Dante showed us a vision of hell and heaven that is in tune with Bible and his experience mirroring St. Paul and St. John the Beloved.