Dante on the mind

I am living with Dante, again, and the Inferno burns as icy hot as ever. As with many of the texts I teach, I have become consumed with its themes and ideas. Dante is so difficult since it roils the very core of our existence. He forces us to think in terms of good and evil and to confront the magnificent fact of a God who gives us the opportunity to choose between the two. We are not compelled but given the ability to think, to rationalize, and to choose – how frightening. It would be so much easier to be told what to do, to be directed – but He does not do that. He somehow trusts us. Dante tells us God’s love is unconditional and all we have to do is choose to accept love, but then he shows us all the other choices, the seemingly easy ones that prevent us from choosing true love. Dante is so relevant because he shows us the basis of so much misfortune and grief - selfishness and pride. I like teaching Dante right after the Odyssey and Confucius since they, especially Homer, focus on the same theme. Odysseus goes to Hades to wash off the pride of the hero of kleos, and to find nostos, the hero of homecoming – the placement of family on home over self. We find heaven when we lose ourselves and see only others we love.

I happen to catch part of the Today Show on Veterans Day and there was a segment on the Jewish concept of the afterlife, of heaven and hell. I found it very comforting – the idea so similar to my own beliefs, and somewhat Dante’s. There was one big difference, and I have to find out more. It is a key difference that seems so in line with Christ’s teachings; it is also something that would address many of my student’s concerns. One of the rabbis stated that hell to Judaism is more of stopping off place to heaven. (He also described this world as a porch to the heaven – an image I love.) It seemed more like my Catholic sense of purgatory. It fit with the idea of God’s unconditional love. Many of my students ask why such a short period of time on earth, one filled with so much inequality, should determine one’s eternity. This concept of being always able to choose love, even in hell, is an interesting twist– an idea that Dante might have evolved to if his own life weren’t so unhappy. While I love Dante’s work, I find him a difficult person – someone who could not find the forgiveness he so eloquently explained was always freely offered to us by God.