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2 - Hell

Dante and Aquinas

from Part I - Hell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2022

Denys Turner
Denys Turner
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
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Summary

Dante must travel through Hell because there is that of Hell in himself. But his journey through Hell is not for him infernal, for Hell exists only for those eternally condemned there, and he, with Virgil, is but passing through. But it is still a transforming journey for Dante, and necessarily so. For him, the journey is purgatorial, not infernal, ascetical, not punitive. Is Dante’s journey possible? If Aquinas is right then no: For Hell’s condemnation is eternal and irreversible, and what you can make a fixed-time journey through cannot be Hell.

Keywords

Hellsinself-knowledgepsychopathPardoner’s TaleDescartes
Type
Chapter
Information
Dante the Theologian , pp. 41 - 78
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Hell
  • Denys Turner, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Dante the Theologian
  • Online publication: 02 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009168687.005
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  • Hell
  • Denys Turner, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Dante the Theologian
  • Online publication: 02 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009168687.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Hell
  • Denys Turner, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Dante the Theologian
  • Online publication: 02 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009168687.005
Available formats
×