One of the oldest and most unsettled theological debates is the existence of evil and sin

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One of the oldest and most unsettled theological debates is the existence of evil and sin. Throughout the monotheistic centuries, religionists have delved deeply into this convoluted problem. How can evil exist in a world that is wholly informed by God, the ultimate Good? What could ever lure man, bestowed with divine qualities, to sin to the incredible extent human history has witnessed? Through the insightful poetic journey into the Christian afterlife and the allegorical meaning it encompasses, Dante, in his Divine Comedy, tackles and resolves with a forceful conclusion this problem of sin. He utilizes the threefold structural division of Mount Purgatory, and its allegorical symbols described therein to reveal his insightful conception of love and freewill, as he exposes the roots of not only good deeds, but sin as well. Through his carefully organized arrangement of the afterlife, Dante brings to light the significance of the halfway point of cantos XVII and XVIII of Purgatory. By placing Virgil’s discourse on love and freewill at the midpoint of his own ascent up Mount Purgatory, Dante exposes the concept of freewill in the universe, as he is necessarily positioned at the centre between the Inferno and Paradise.

Immediately, Dante opens his Divine Comedy with carefully chosen words to indicate something special regarding his future journey. “Midway this way of life we’re bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, where the right road was wholly lost and gone” (Inferno I, 1-3). Dante finds himself in a moment of crisis as, at the midpoint of his life, he is now venturing on a journey which will undoubtedly include both good aspects, and it’s opposite. He faces the moment in which one must choose the good and reject its alternative. Interestingly, it is exactly half way along Dante’s ascent up Mount Purgatory that he turns to Virgil, who is asked to explain the nature of Purgatory. It is here, in Canto XVII, that Virgil delivers his first major discourse on Love. In a universe in which God is Love, Virgil begins, “never, my son, was yet Creator, no, nor creature, without love” (Purgatory XVII, 91-92). It is the one basic element of Love, according to Dante, which guides all governing principles in the universe. Virgil, as well, makes a clear distinction between “natural love” (Purgatory XVII, 93) and “rational love” (Purgatory XVII, 93), stating that Love, though inherent in the mortal creature, may be either free of error, natural, or that which can err, rational. Natural love is what causes human beings to love, as loving, therefore, simply occurs naturally. However, it is how we choose to love, through rational love, that makes our loving either noble or ignoble. “When to the great prime goods it makes full claim, or to the lesser goods in measure due, no sin can come of its delight in them” (Purgatory XVII, 97-100). When Love is focused properly towards God, no more righteous an act can exist. However, when Love is either misdirected, excessive or non-existent one is stationed on Mount Purgatory, and the ascent is impeded.

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Dante’s division of Mount Purgatory into three categories of sin, as explicated by Virgil’s discourse on love, explains how the Seven Capital Sins are, in fact, rooted in love. In Lower Purgatory, Dante insists the Cardinal Sins of Pride, Envy and Wrath are merely caused by love guided “by faulty aim” (Purgatory XVII, 95). Love becomes deformed in the sinner’s mind as he seeks to advance his own ends by hurting or impeding his competitor neighbour. Thus, the proud, envious or wrathful sinner becomes motivated by the love of his neighbour’s harm.  It is through Dante’s group of the ...

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