Comparing the Roman Empire with Dante's Inferno

There are some people in this day and age who see history as being irrelevant and only know tip of the ice burg facts. Most people when asked about the Christian church say that it split, however the reading of Chapter 10 from Ways of the World provides much more information on the given topic. The chapter begins with explaining the collapse of the Roman Empire and the continuous establishment of Eastern Christianity in the original church located in Byzantine. Following the collapse which took many years, the East of Europe was better off than the West. Byzantine although small, was full of culture and played important roles in Eurasian trades and clearly defined themselves from being different from Catholics. In the West, the Catholic Church served as a way to unify Western Europe and eventually catch up and develop as well. During the Crusades Europe benefited in many ways by bringing back ideas and goods from the far east and be able to further develop, however at the same time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church grew further apart. Following this era comes the day and age of Dante and the reading of his Inferno. Dante’s Inferno is Dante’s journey trying to find God who ends up on a path into the underworld through hell and is Dante’s own narration of his experience. The reading starts with Dante being in a forest and is approached by three beasts which takes him off his course and leads him to Virgil who takes him to the underworld to Hell. Hell is inside of the earth and consists of nine circles. The circles are Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. Each circle higher up represents a greater sin. Through his journey, he discovers there are many people from different cultures especially Greece.
The information and content of chapter 10 from Ways of the World and the reading from Dante’s Inferno are two completely different texts however they can still be related to one another by having many similarities and differences. One of the main ways in which the two readings can be connected to one another is the fact that they both stress the fact of importance of Christianity in either direct or indirect ways. Towards the end of the reading of Chapter 10 Ways of the World we see how after the fall of Rome the west was able to rebuild itself. A big reason for that was due to the Catholic Church who unified many people around through Christianity. This sense of unification shows just how important Christianity became to people of the West and how it was able to bring everyone together. In Dante’s Inferno, the same sense of importance of Christianity applies as well but in a different level. The quote “because they had not baptism, which is part of the faith that thou believest,” (Canto 4 pg.25) is a prime example of the previous statement. Dante is describing that he sees people in limbo (1st circle of hell) for not being baptized which is a huge part of Catholicism. The quote suggests that Dante in a broad sense is trying to let people know of all cultures and backgrounds that hell is very real and that Christianity is important as it is the only way to escape the punishments of hell. Also in a way Dante is trying to stress the importance of Christianity to Christians as well. Is message being that to take it seriously and precisely as the quote describes how people who were not baptized (which is so little but so important) are stuck in hell. Both of the readings in my opinion try to stress the importance of Christianity in their own ways and I believe that their messages relate to our class theme of authority and faith. The reason I say this is because I feel that the authorities of the Catholic Church and Dante support the faith of Christianity with full evidence. For the Catholic Church, their unification shows Christianity works and Dante’s experience shows that Christianity is very real and that there is a hell to be fearful of. Another way in which the reading of Chapter 10 from Ways of the World and Dante’s Inferno are related to one another is the fact that they work hand in hand in providing a physical and spiritual mind set of Christianity during the middle ages. The chapter from Ways of the World provide what was happening in the physical world of Christianity at the time and Dante’s Inferno reflects how people felt about their own faith and connection to God. By reading the Chapter, anyone could figure out the Christianity was going through a rough patch with the fall of Rome, reconstruction of the west, and invaders into Byzantine and not to mention the Crusades. There was a lot of death and destruction going and people were struggling with their own faith and trying to get closer to God which is represented by Dante’s own quest to find God which is mentioned through the Inferno. The events which occurred throughout the middle ages faced the Christian people with many challenges such as the invasion of byzantine. At the same time those many physical challenges transformed into spiritual challenges as people tried to get closer to God but were faced with obstacles. This can be seen in Dante’s Inferno in pages 16 and 17 (Canto I) when Dante comes across three beasts. These beasts represented obstacles in Dante’s path which he has to overcome in order to get closer to God and strengthen his faith in which I am sure he did when he witnessed hell. In a way the two readings go together in a way of showing how physical problems transpired into spiritual problems of the people of the time. This can be applied to our class theme by showing how when authority was challenged there was an increase in faith. In my opinion when looking at the readings and time period, I view the Christian people and Dante being tested by God. Having an Islamic faith, we believe that both religions have the same single ultimate God so these challenges were tests from God. I believe that these tests were to challenge the faith of the people in order to strengthen it and find the truth within themselves in which some people did with the rise of Islam during that time period.
If there is a single hell, does it imply that one Church is right and the other is wrong?
Do you think Dante would go straight to heaven since he saw hell and would avoid the 9 sins?