Dante's Reconciliation of a Loving God and a Horrific Hell

Dante's Reconciliation of a Loving God and a Horrific Hell Dante Alighieri, a great Italian poet, is most noted for a journey, which he wrote of in his Divine Comedy series. In these works, Alighieri sends a fictional Dante through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The Inferno is a detailed description of Dante's journey through Hell. While on this journey, Dante witnesses the scourge of the damned through the use of all senses. He smells the …

…described, the concept of punishing sinners remains the same, for humans were created free. The opportunity to sin was given to man, as was the opportunity to except grace and forgiveness. The only requirement for obtaining grace is recognition of sin followed by repentance. Those who reject grace are those who end up in hell. Given these arguments, Dante is successful in reconciling the God described above with the hell he describes in The Inferno.