The differences between Dante’ and the churches depictions of hell and purgatory are very interesting. Dante is a crazily influential author, so separating the churches beliefs from his can be relatively difficult, considering a lot of what people believe about Hell now is based in what Dante said, and has basically nothing to do with what the Church believes.
Separating the Churches beliefs of hell, and Dante’s is very difficult in terms of art. The amount of art that was created after the inferno was written that isn't heavily based off of the inferno is negligible. However, the Church believes that hell is just where people who go are completely separated from God, and there is no coming back. We can see the influence of Dante’s work in what basically everyone thinks of Hell, this horrible place that you go to be tortured for all of eternity physically, but the church believes that its more of a mental torture, knowing that you will …show more content…
This is vastly different from the Churches Purgatory in one main way. Dante’s seems to be a “bittersweet” place, you know that you’re going to get into heaven, however you must still undergo hardships to get there. In contrast, the Churches Purgatory is a place of immense joy, you will be getting into heaven, you just have to wait and be cleansed of your sins. However The Catholic Encyclopedia defines it as “It is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.” This quote brings up a very important part of the idea, that Purgatory could be just a condition of being cleansed of your sin, and not necessarily a place. This would be a direct contradiction of Dante’s