Comparing Aquinas And Dante's Inferno

St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante gave light to the true qualities of the soul through their texts The Divine Comedy, and Aquinas’s Shorter Summa. Throughout the words of these influential authors we begin to understand the path the soul takes from its formation to its end. Both St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante agree that the soul is a distinct being from the body that carries out a certain fate according to the way one follows God’s teachings. St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante regard to the existence of souls rather than “bodies” throughout most of their texts. Both authors agree that instead of the body itself carrying on to, Hell, or Purgatory, it is the soul that lives on. St. Thomas explains, “Besides, if men once risen were to die, the souls separated

176, Par. 155). In this quote St. Thomas states how when our bodies physically die, our souls do not stay within the dead body, rather they move on to one of the three worlds that Dante describes for us. St. Thomas believes that soul will not stay deprived in the dead body as each soul has a deeper fate that it will continue to live on in another life. The life it goes on to live, according to Dante, is based off of how well that soul lived its life in accordance with God’s teachings. In the text Inferno, we learn that individuals who lived their life in sin face an eerie fate in their life after death. Virgil explains to Dante, “This wretched state of being / is the fate of those sad souls who lived a life / but lived it with no blame and no praise” (Dante, The Divine Comedy/ Inferno, P.15, L. 34-36). Virgil is informing Dante about the cries for help that he is hearing as they inch closer to Hell,

The reward of the soul that Dante exemplifies in his writing is supported by St. Thomas’s teachings in his novel Aquinas’s Shorter Summa. St. Thomas states, “the reward of virtue is happiness, to be granted to man by God’s goodness” (Aquinas, Shorter Summa, P.198, Par.172). St. Thomas believes that God grants happiness to souls who lived with virtue throughout their life, and punishment to those who neglected it. For God to be gracious to a soul after death, that soul must have lived a virtuous life in accordance with God’s teachings. If the soul had strayed from his teachings, God sends that individual to a lower realm where they can repent their sins. In Dante’s Paradise we see characters who are content with the life they live in Heaven. No matter what circle they reside upon, each individual feels reluctant to be so close to God. Piccarda explains, “Brother, the virtue of our charity / brings quiet to our wills, so we desire / but what we have, and thirst for nothing else” (Dante, Paradise, P.29, L.70-72). In this quote, Piccarda is explaining to Dante why she does not desire to be in a higher circle of Heaven. Piccarda explains that she does not desire anything more than what God has blessed her with already. We see through her words that the virtuous life she lived has allowed God to reward her with an eternal life she is content with. Throughout