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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30730 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 3, 2023

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I think I should remind you that Dante was not, in fact, a theologian. He never claimed that his work was theological in nature and was not received as such. It was meant as entertainment: it's original title was "Comedy" and large chunks of the book are spent on trivial political diatribes where Dante "wins" the argument by portraying himself as the Yes Chad and his political opponents as crying soyjaks tortured by devils.

Commedia in the 14th century didn't mean light or frivolous. It just meant any story that isn't a tragedy. It would probably be more accurate in today's English to translate Divina Commedia as 'The Divine Story' or 'The Divine Narrative'.

You can find more examples by reading the history of Apokatastasis. I like Eriugena's version, the theological big crunch

Could you summarize this? I'm very curious.

Sorry wrong person - @aaa?

The bible is vague on a lot of things, so early theologians filled in by borrowing from greek philosophy, mystery cults, etc. The idea that an infinitely good god will eventually save everyone, and therefore that hell is temporary (i.e. apokatastasis), is not that far fetched (certainly less so than a hierarchy of angels, or the trinity) and thus it circulated, pretty much for all of the history of christianity.

Eriugena's version is explained in his book de divisione naturae and it's a very abstract philosophical theory where creation starts in god as ideas (he thinks platonic forms) which eventually become material. Because god has to be the ultimate form of all aristotelian causes he's also the ultimate final cause so everything returns to him through an inverse process.

Thank you! This is a form of Christianity I might actually be able to believe in. Boy the Catholics really ruined a lot of things huh?

Right, meaning it's a story, it's fictional.

Yes, of course. Dante was a writer, not a theologian or philosopher. I think he did mean Divina Commedia to express truths that he felt were important, both politically and theologically, but he was certainly not writing a scholastic treatise on the way that Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell actually are. He was using his imagination to make a series of other points.

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