Dante's Inferno, Episode 5: Can Pagans Be Saved?

Hell is murky. Today we enter limbo, which is technically the least painful section of hell but actually leaves me with some of the toughest questions in the poem. What does Dante make--what do Christians in general make--of all the noble, wise, and humane people who apparently lived outside the reach of Christ? Were they outside His reach? Are human virtues enough to save us? If so, why aren't we doing better?? Dante, in his characteristic way, rachets these questions up to 11 and then moves through them subtly, confoundingly, and above all, beautifully. His poetry leads us to contemplate what it might look like for God's justice and God's mercy to become one.

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00:00 Introduction 

01:05 Canto 3: Hell's Vestibule 

24:25 Appetites and Inhabitants of Hell 

44:22 Tragedies of Futility and Fate 

56:28 Mailbag: Meditations on Suffering 

1:09:56 Closing Remarks