Reading the Inferno

This Lent I am reading the Gospel of Mark and the Divine Comedy. Last week I wrote about my experiences with Mark. This week I write about Dante.

This is perhaps my sixth or seven time traveling through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven with this fourteenth century poet. I have come to realize that, along with Augustine's Confessions, this is my favorite book.

I have been drawn again and again to both books for years and yet didn't really know why, other than they both gave me a satisfying mix of pleasure with depth of meaning and intention. Things became clearer for me couple of years ago when I read an essay by Gary Wills. He described what both the Confessions and the Divine Comedy have in common. Both, he wrote, are 'theological constructs...with autobiographical elements.'

In both books, you have men of great intellect and passion working out their relationships with God. Both are far too honest to hide their warts and failures from the reader and yet neither is shy to share moments of triumph and grace. In addition, they are both delightful writers, capable of an image or a turn of phrase that stops me and makes want to savor and reflect.

Neither book is easy. They both require work in order to get into and then inhabit the world they describe. But in both cases, and particularly I am thinking now of Dante's hell, the effort is well worth it.

But why, you might wonder, is it worth the effort to spend time in hell? Well, the reasons are many, but here are three:

1. Some of the scenes of Dante interacting with condemned sinners are among the most moving in all of literature. I'm thinking particularly of his interactions with Paolo and Francesca, with Brunetto Latini and with Ulysses. In each of these cases there is a kind of tragic tension because as a reader you sympathize deeply with the condemned and yet understand the flaw that sent them to hell. You sense too that Dante is well aware of the tension between sympathy and condemnation.

2. Other scenes are, surprisingly, quite funny. There's a terrific scene in the lower regions of hell where the assorted devils with ridiculous names behave like the keystone cops. The scene concludes with a demon farting by, Dante writes, 'making a trumpet out of his ass!'

3. There is always a lot to ponder about the spiritual life. This time through, I find myself wondering about Dante's own spiritual struggles. I am reminded of being told once that all the characters in our nighttime dreams can ultimately be understood as ourselves. I find myself thinking that maybe many of the characters that Dante encounters in this vivd and persuasive dream of hell are actually Dante himself. Perhaps part of the reason that the four characters I mentioned in number one are so compelling is that the sins of Paolo, Francesca, Brenetto and Ulysses are so close to Dante's own sins. Maybe we are witnessing a strong and faithful yet sensitive and contrite soul wrestle with itself.

As western Christians we are indeed blessed to have writers of this quality to help us as we work out our own salvation before God! I'm looking forward to continuing my journey with Dante as, in the weeks ahead, I follow his climb up the mountain of purgatory and then his stunning flight through the celestial spheres toward his ultimate vision of God.