Looking forward to Paradise Lost

I thought it was so interesting when the professors brought up Milton today. I don't mean to spoil anything for you, but there is a huge difference in Satan's role in Hell. I have been mulling the difference over all day. Why is that? Well, I think a lot of it had to do with each of the author's own personal experience. Milton was a rebellious politician, and he wrote Satan as a rebel king of hell. Dante creates his own character in the story as a pilgrim, meaning that all that he sees in the tale has a greater meaning for him. Neither of these epics should be taken as theological ground for forming your view of hell. What they do is reveal much about the author and his view of the world... There's more to it than that, but in Dante's case especially I think this has a lot to do with the understanding of the medieval world he lived in. I think, as weird as it is, that it is incredible interesting, for it chiefly illustrates an interesting view of sin. Sin is not only the crime, it is the punishment. When we choose it above God, it is what we are left to. It destroys us. God is the best thing for us, that is why he is jealous for us. Yet he leaves us to our own passions... It is interesting that in a sense, we are our own punishers, not Satan. Satan doesn't rule Hell for Dante, God's justice does. Without God's mercy saving us from our punishments, all that is left is God's justice--and that cannot stop punishment that is sin.



Commented on Becca's.

Thieves and Snakes

Dr. Mitchell said to day in class that in Dante’s hell, the crime doesn’t necessarily fit the punishment, but instead, the crime is the punishment. In Canto XXIV, Dante describes the punishment of thieves.  They are naked. Their hands are bound by snakes, which constantly attack them. How is this punishment the crime? I believe that snakes and thieves share many characteristics. To be a thief, one must be very sneaky, deceitful, conniving, and manipulative. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent shared all of these qualities. I believe that its ironic that their hands are bound by the embodiment of the qualities that got them to hell in the first place. The crime is the punishment.

I commented on Jasmine’s Blog!

Leading in which direction...

In our groups today, we talked about Canto XXVI. Ulysses pushed his limits as a human by trying to get to the end of the world. This doesn’t sound like something terribly bad, but it is because God should be the only one to be able to do something as un-human as that. Ulysses’ desires put his life in danger, as well as many other men. When journeying to the end of the world, it is apparent that Ulysses had good, persuasive leadership skills when guiding his men, but he used them for evil rather than for the good. This is something that relates to society today. There are many potential leaders out there, but they lead in the wrong direction. Many people try to do things that they shouldn’t, which push the limits that God has given us, much like Ulysses did.

I commented on Dylan's

When Hell Freezes Over

When picturing Hell, the first image that usually comes to mind is that of a fire and brimstone setting with a red skinned figure with horns and a pointy tail calling the shots; a far cry from the Hell that Dante dipicts in the Inferno. I find it extrememly interesting that the floor of Hell is a frozen lake. Some might say that it is a punishment for Satan, that his rebelllion against God was a ploy for freedom, and therefore his eternal punishment is that he is condemed to be frozen in place. However, I have another theory; that God's presence is in life. Life stems from sustainable forces, heat being one of them. So on the floor of Hell, not only is Satan being punished in an immovable prision of sorts, but he has no access to any source of life.

p.s-I commented on Katlyn Euwing's

The punishment is the crime.

today, in about three seconds Dr. Mitchell said something that has been slightly haunting me ever since. He said in Dante's hell the punishment doesn't fit the crime- the punishment IS the crime.

Fascinating. It might also be said that all who choose sin choose to suffer in a certain way. They, in a strange sense, desire that particular type of punishment rather than release from it. I don't know what to do with that information because it's changing the way I see sin. C. S. Lewis said the sin that keeps people in hell is the one thing they would keep instead of God and that one thing is their torment. So for lovers who would have love instead of God, that lover becomes their punishment. So in a strange sense people who do not want God do, in the end, get what they want. Because our own desires are hell.
Unless we be changed and born again, learning to love the will of God.

Mind blown/ reminded of the grace of God.

I commented on Susan's.

Curiosity killed the Achaean

     So, I had this thought as we talked about Ulysses(Odysseus), "Curiosity killed the Achaean." At first we find good ole Odysseus searching again, searching for something beyond what humans should know.  He says he is searching for the cause of human vices, but like Dr. Mitchell questioned, "Where the best place to learn about men?" Answer is from living among mankind, not secluding yourself out on the sea.  So curiosity was not really his crime, was it?  His thirst for special knowledge, which was really a thirst for power was a crime. His deceptive tongue which doomed his crew was a crime. His audacity to think that He could challenge God's boundaries was also a crime. He committed sins greater than incontinence, greater than just violence, and even greater than fraud. These combined sins together is one we reason we find him placed so deep in Hell, yet not in the deepest pit.
   This whole story of Ulysses reminds me of a scene from Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, where at the end the Soviet Lady says "I want to know! I want to know everything" and ends up having herself literally exploded from 'knowledge'. There are some things humans minds are not permitted, because they can not understand it.

P.S. commented on Jasmine's post

Spiritual Absolute Zero

The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous 

 From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice; 

And better with a giant I compare 

 Than do the giants with those arms of his; 

Consider now how great must be that whole, 

 Which unto such a part conforms itself. 

 Were he as fair once, as he now is foul, 

 And lifted up his brow against his Maker, 

 Well may proceed from him all tribulation.

                                 -Canto XXXIV

I'm going a little far in the reading, but I felt that it needed to be mentioned. In Song 34, Dante mentions Satan, who is at the bottom, the ninth circle of Hell, which is home to the betrayers. It is interesting to note that at this level, there is no fire. Instead, it is frozen over, with the betrayers half frozen in ice. Three notable betrayers, Brutus, Cassius, and Judas, are being gnawed at by Satan's three heads. Dr. Brekke mentioned in class today that the ninth circle was a "spiritual absolute zero." This got me thinking.

Absolute zero is a concept in science that implies that there is a temperature that is at the lowest temperature anything in the universe could ever reach. At absolute zero, which is roughly -273.15*C, all entropy is at minimum value. The electrons in atoms stop orbiting the nuclei. Everything condenses to the point of having no mass. At absolute zero, matter ceases to exist.

I have thought about that concept since then, and I realized that the worst possible punishment would be to no longer exist. We had mentioned that the punishment always fit the crime, but for this circle of Hell, I could find no way in which this particular punishment fit the sin. Save that the quintessential human need was love, without which, humans would not only lose their lives, but also their humanity. If there was no love that the servant had for his master whom he betrayed, then there would be no love between the ultimate Master and his children. As a consequence, no love, no humanity, no existence.

~~Cody Martin

PS. I commented here