Since the beginning of time, legions of people have all had their own interpretation of the after-life, and if there even is one. Many philosophies, religions, and individuals have all asked themselves the same question at one point or another: Is there a Heaven or a Hell? Where will my body go? Will my soul follow?
The Bible has many passages in which it describes its specific thoughts and claims on the “afterlife”. The afterlife as noted in the Bible, is divided into two different places, Heaven and Hell. Under this notion, everyone will continue their life after death eternally either in Heaven or Hell based on the type of life they lived.
Where one spends the rest of their life is determined by whether a person puts their trust in Christ and his teachings, if so they will descend into Heaven and if not they will be punished for their actions in Hell. Christian doctrine notes one description of what constitutes being sent to Hell, “41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42). That passage from the Bible is an indication that disregarding the word of God constitutes being sent into Hell.
Dante Alighieri lived in Florence, Italy throughout the late 13th century, a time when Christianity was the predominant religion. For those who followed the orthodox doctrine of Christianity like Dante did, the concept of Hell was very simple. Hell was a place after death where those who have committed any offense against the “Ten Commandments” are sent to suffer eternal confusion, turmoil, grief, hopelessness, misery, and an over all te...
... middle of paper ...
...up - King James Version - BibleGateway.com." BibleGateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. .
Dictionary.com | Free Online Dictionary for English Definitions . N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2011. .
Musa, Mark. The Divine Comedy Volume 1: Inferno. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971.
"Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy." Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2011. .
“Dante's Inferno - Circle 6 - Canto 10." Danteworlds. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
“Dante Alighieri (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2011.
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. Notes Allen Mandelbaum and Gabriel Marruzzo. New York: Bantam Books, 1980
Hell will exist forever as place to hold Satan. The demons and those who choose him rather than Christ. But Heaven is the throne of God's glory and the reward for the righteous. We will receive our resurrection body and all pain of any kind will be gone for those in Heaven.
Many religions and philosophies attempt to answer the question, what happens after a person dies? Some religions, such as Christianity and Islam, believe there is an afterlife. They believe that good and moral people enter Heaven or Paradise and that bad and immoral people go to Hell. Other religions and cultures believe that death is final, and that nothing happens after a person dies. Buddhism and Hinduism have different ideas about death.
Hell threatens a peaceful life after death, it is abnormal where it is not tangible, and has horrifying views associated when referenced by the grotesque nature of punishment that some believe Hell provides. Naturally, humans fear the unknown; due to the uncertainty of what happens after one dies, the afterlife becomes one of the most pondered human questions. While each version of Hell has a slightly different background, all share common threads throughout. Religion, mythology, and folklore, help to make sense of answers that are not concrete.
Taylor, Guy. "Inferno Inferno Canto VI (the Third Circle: the Gluttonous) Summary." Shmoop. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .
Dante Alighieri's The Inferno is a poem written in first person that tells a story of Dante’s journey through the nine circles of Hell after he strays from the rightful path. Each circle of Hell contains sinners who have committed different sins during their lifetime and are punished based on the severity of their sins. When taking into the beliefs and moral teachings of the Catholic Church into consideration, these punishments seem especially unfair and extreme.
One of the greatest and oldest human mysteries on Earth is death, and the fate that lies beyond it. The curious minds of human beings constantly wonder about the events that occur after death. No person truly knows what happens after a person ceases to live in the world, except for the people themselves who have passed away. As a result, over the course of history, people of various backgrounds, ethnicities, and religions have speculated and believed in numerous different possibilities for the destiny that awaits them beyond the world of the living. The great ambiguity of the afterlife is extremely ancient that many different beliefs about it have been dated back to several centuries ago. These beliefs go as far back to the beliefs of Ancient Egyptians, which outline the journey that the dead travels to the land of Osiris; and the belief of Ancient Greeks that all souls eventually find themselves in Hades’ realm, the Underworld. Throughout history, views and beliefs from emerging religions continue to develop as the human conscience persists in finding answers to this ancient, unresolved mystery. Prime examples of the various and separate beliefs regarding death and the afterlife are found in the diverse faiths of Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Buddhism.
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
There are multiple views on death and the afterlife and each view is different depending on the religion or belief that someone practices. Some religions believe in a heaven but not a hell, some believe in both and others do not believe in either. The religions that are practiced today were created by our ancient ancestors who had the ability to think beyond themselves. Practicing a religion and having an idea of death and an afterlife back in ancient times laid a foundation on how religion is seen and practiced today. Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Hindu’s created the concept of death and life after death through what they believed and practiced in ancient times.
In conceiving the punishments of Hell, Dante employs mythical material and elements of popular faith; they are enormously imaginative, but each single one of them is based on strict and precise reflection, on the rank and degree of the sin in question, on a thorough knowledge of rational systems of ethics; and each one, as a concrete realization of the idea of divine order, is calculated to provoke rational thought concerning the nature of this sin, that is, the way in which it deviates from the divine order. (111)
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
Alighieri, Dante. "The Inferno." The Divine Comedy. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: First New American Library Printing, 2003.
Lastly, there’s the question of our destiny; is there life after death and what will happen to me when I die? I know that sometimes we all think about what happens after we go to be home with our Lord and Savior but as for me, I know that I will never truly die that that I will live on forever with my Father in Heaven. So the answer to this question is yes I believe there is life after death because if you believe in God you are forever his child and you will live an everlasting life. Please refer to 2 Timothy 1:10 and 2 Corinthians
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy, Inferno. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.
What is going to happen to us when we will die? Some people never considered what it could happen to them after life. For many people, death is a redoubtable event because they do not know what to expect after their death. However, other persons, such as religious people are conscious of what to expect after their death because of their beliefs. Each religion has different ideas and different ways of looking life. Death, therefore, is viewed by different religions in many ways. Although, different religions have a distinct conception of death, they all have something in common: they all give hope to people. Among all different religions in the world, four of the most common ones - Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, and Hindu- view death in different ways.