Many of the current dilemmas of Theology are related to God’s Justice. Theodore Sider argues against a specific variant of the doctrine of Hell which questions God's Justice. The type of Hell Sider objects to is one bound in the Dichotomy of Heaven and Hell, due to the implication of its design. Sider further elaborates his position by speaking of the degrees of sins and what that entails in the ultimate calculation of who goes to Heaven and Hell. This takes aim at the criterion of Heaven and Hell and the dispensement of these states given that God is an active part in the process. Sider responds to critics by addressing shortcomings in his paper and finishes by assessing that a binary view of Hell falls short of justice on par with God’s attributes. …show more content…
He wishes to point out the inconsistencies in the Binary conception of Heaven and Hell. There is also an acknowledgment of Universalism and Calvinism as alternative interpretations of the doctrine of Hell, but outside of the scope of his paper. However, these are outside of the purvey of his paper for differing reasons. Part of the difficulty in accepting the traditional theory is the disproportionate, and arbitrary assignment of reward and punishment that needs to be enforced. This is further elaborated by introducing the existence of borderline-cases and the sharp divide in the sorting process of Heaven and Hell that is potentially incompatible with God’s perfect justice. The infinite rewards and punishments dispense for finite sins or merits doesn’t seem to address the issue of degrees of sins and merits. Which ultimately sort people into Heaven or Hell, but there would eventually be cases along a sharp divide between both these states. Which it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile the dispensement of either …show more content…
He explores this idea by citing the Epistemicist viewpoint and contrasting it with his own view. Epistemicists would generally hold the viewpoint that borderline-cases are due to unsatisfactory predicates being use in the discussion and we should reserve a faith based criterion in which God understands. Theodore Sider argues that focusing solely on the predicates and allowing things to be decided by a faith-based criterion makes us lose the moral meaning of things. So a large part of that conversation then goes onto what common grounds can be used to eventually agree on predicates to use for
He tries to argue against the common notion that that, disasters are direct consequences of God's judgment to some kinds of sin. Fretheirn argues that the judgment of God is not punitive, but recuperativc in nature and is meant to bring cleansing to people. With this idea, Fretheim introduces the idea of intimate relationship between God and humans. Consequently, the judgment of God over sin or evil associated with human behaviors shows the goodness of God and his grief over the disaster inflicted upon humans. For instance, he says that despite God allowing people to the consequences of their sins, hc does not give up on them.
Dante’s Inferno is an unparalleled piece of literature where Dante creates, experiences, and explains hell. He organizes it into four different sections, inconvenience, violence, simple fraud, and treachery. These sections are further divided into ten different circles of hell, which are the Neutrals, Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Avarice and Prodigality, Anger and Sullenness, Heresy, Violence, the Ten Malebolge, and the Frozen Floor of Hell. King Minos passes judgement on each of the people who enter hell, and he then sends them to their designated circle. The organization of Dante’s four sections, his ten circles, and the judgement from King Minos all display forms of cultural bias. This paper will demonstrate possible differences by providing an
Dante Alighieri presents a vivid and awakening view of the depths of Hell in the first book of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno. The reader is allowed to contemplate the state of his own soul as Dante "visits" and views the state of the souls of those eternally assigned to Hell's hallows. While any one of the cantos written in Inferno will offer an excellent description of the suffering and justice of hell, Canto V offers a poignant view of the assignment of punishment based on the committed sin. Through this close reading, we will examine three distinct areas of Dante's hell: the geography and punishment the sinner is restricted to, the character of the sinner, and the "fairness" or justice of the punishment in relation to the sin. Dante's Inferno is an ordered and descriptive journey that allows the reader the chance to see his own shortcomings in the sinners presented in the text.
Faustino, Mara. Heaven and Hell: A Compulsively Readable Compendium of Myth, Legend, Wisdom and Wit for Saints and Sinners. New York: Grove/Atlantic Inc., 2004. Print.
In analyzing this gradient of morality, it is useful first to examine a work from early literature whose strong purity of morality is unwavering; for the purposes of this discussion, Dante’s Inferno provides this model. It is fairly straightforward to discover Dante’s dualistic construction of morality in his winding caverns of Hell; each stern, finite circle of Hell is associated with a clear sin that is both definable and directly punishable. As Dante moves downwards in this moral machination, he notes that
It is hard to place St. Augustine within just one of the levels of Dante’s hell for his sins were varied and not great. Today many of his sins are commonplace. For example, most people attempt to better their own lives without regard of others. They attempt to increase their standard of living and gain more worldly possessions. They are neither good nor evil but are just trying to make a living and keep up in today’s fend-for-yourself society. Before Augustine’s conversion, this was his goal. He was continually searching for “honors, money, (and) marriage” (Confessions, 991). This allows Augustine to be placed in the first area of hell, the Vestibule. It is a place for opportunists such as Augustine was before his conversion. It is a place for the “nearly soulless. . . who were neither for God nor Satan, but only for themselves” (Inferno, 1295). Augustine never intentionally hurt anyone, but his actions were led by his instincts to succeed and gain praise. These actions included kissing up to the Emperor, his study of law and the art of persuasion, and the mocking of newcomers to his profession. Since each of these sins also falls within a different realm of Dante’s hell, they will be discussed later in this paper.
This notion of the suitability of God’s punishments figures significantly in the structure of Dante’s Hell. To readers, as well as Dante himself (the character), the torments Dante and Virgil behold seem surprisingly harsh, possibly harsher than is fair, Dante exclaims this with surprise. He doesn’t actually wonder who decided on these tortures. He knows it was god. What he is questioning is how these punishments are just, since they don’t appear to be just from a human’s point of view which views each punishment together with its conjugate sin only superficially. For example, homosexuals must endure an eternity of walking on hot sand, and those who charge interest on loans sit beneath a rain of fire. At first glance, each one seems too terrible for any sin. However, when the poem is viewed as a whole, it becomes clear that the guiding principle of these punishments is one of balance. Sinners suffer punishment to the degree befitting the gravity of their sin, in a manner matching that sin’s nature. The structures of the poem and of hell serve to reinforce this correspondence.
...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.
Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are likewise split into levels corresponding to sin. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.
Dismayed by his poor fortune, Boethius’s question regarding how a just God could allow evil into His world generates the idea of a simultaneous yet omnipresent God. Boethius relates his experience with injustice with the actions of God saying, “It is nothing short of monstrous that god should look on while every criminal is allowed to achieve his purpose against the innocent. If this is so, it was hardly without reason that one of your household asked where evil comes from if there is a god, and where good comes from if there isn’t.”(Book 1, Prose 4)
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.
“How stern the power of Almighty God who crushes sinners with such righteous blows(Canto XXIV lines 109-110)!” In Dante’s Inferno, Dante Alighieri describes a trip through Hell, visiting the various sinners and circles of Hell. Dante also uses many experiences and beliefs from his real life to enrich his views of Hell and his idea of Divine Punishment. Dante’s perception of Divine Justice includes sinners whom he places in Hell for committing crimes without regret, they are placed lower in Hell according to the severity of their sins. Dante is not always just in his placement of sinners, his personal grudges and archaic Catholic beliefs get in the way of true Divine Justice.
He gives reason to fear and respect the law of God, lest eternal punishment be your only promise in the afterlife. These punishments are as relevant as can be, so he offers a very vivid picture of hell. The men that he puts in hell give it a realistic twist, enhancing the fear that is felt upon reading this work.
Dante’s The Divine Comedy illustrates one man’s quest for the knowledge of how to avoid the repercussions of his actions in life so that he may seek salvation in the afterlife. The Divine Comedy establishes a set of moral principles that one must live by in order to reach paradise. Dante presents these principles in Inferno, where each level of Hell has people suffering for the sins they committed during their life. As Dante gets deeper into Hell, the degrees of sin get progressively worse, as do the severity of punishment.
A film by award-winning South Korean director Park Chan-wook, Joint Security Area centers around four Korean soldiers serving in the DMZ: Sergeant Lee and Private Nam from South Korea, and Sergeant Oh and Private Jeong from North Korea. The four soldiers have become friends though the friendship is politically incorrect. All four of them are involved in a fatal shooting incident, where Private Jeong and a North Korean officer are killed. Though the scene of the shooting incident is tense and seems disorganized, all four soldiers’ reactions can be comprehended consciously.