Catholic Influence On The Inferno

Religion, in its purest form, has the ability to bring together a group of people. Nevertheless, a difference in religious beliefs can cause an immense rift to form between even the closest of bonds. Not only can conflicting beliefs break up relationships, but it has the ability to segregate large or small masses of people and causing animosity to bloom in the hearts of these people. Dante Alighieri’s poem The Inferno, translated by John Ciardi, shows the struggle between Catholics and non-Catholics in early Italy. Those who did not conform to the Catholic way of life faced the possibility of death or imprisonment. Today, if a person from a religious household, especially a child, makes the decision to forgo their parent’s faith, oftentimes more negative outcomes occur than positive ones. Not only did the Catholic church disregard and shame non-churchgoers, but Dante, as an author, did as well. As for me, I grew up a devout Christian, however as time progressed I began to drift away from my family’s religion and choose my own path.

In becoming agnostic after growing up in a pious Christian family, my home can often mimic the fourteenth century Catholic Church’s and Dante’s extreme opposition towards the “heretics”, or those who opposed the orthodox religion