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Inferno: The Furies and the Heretics
I really enjoyed reading this unit. I had not read it before, I have heard about it of course because it is so very famous and influential in religious ideas. People had told me that trying to read it would be difficult and you can't understand nor appreciate the work unless you know the people that he meets in the different circles of hell. Admittedly, I did not recognize all the names, but I did know most of the people so far. I like how at the end of this snippit, Dante see's the graves of the heretics...
...'Here are the arch-heretics, with their followers, of every sect: and the tombs contain many more than you might think. Here like is buried with like, and the monuments differ in degrees of heat.' ...
I can only imagine the list of people who might have been thought heretics at this time. Lest we forget that even Jesus was condemned a heretic...
You do not demand to know who these spirits are that you see. I want you to learn, before you go further, that they had no sin, yet, though they have worth, it is not sufficient, because they were not baptised, and baptism is the gateway to the faith that you believe in. Since they lived before Christianity, they did not worship God correctly, and I myself am one of them. For this defect, and for no other fault, we are lost, and we are only tormented, in that without hope we live in desire.'
I like this part of the story too, where it talks about how these people are down here not because of sin, but because they were not baptized. Some people are down here because it wa before the time of Christianity. This one really gets me. I find it hilarious and I am sure Dante did too, because the early church fathers who basically invented the religion as an amalgamation of all different religions and ideas had not really critically examined the issues that heaven and hell bring to the picture.
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