As Dante comes to a close this week in English I thought I would give one last direct blog post to this work :)
Recently in religion class, we watched a movie about Christianity, specifically referencing Constantine’s banner. Although it is hard to imagine any specific image Dante had in mind concerning this, I immediately thought of the punishment in Ante-Inferno of the souls forced to chase a banner for eternity. I mentioned this to Father Millican to which we had a lengthy conversation exploring it a bit more so I thought I would share!
During war times, it was standard practice to follow a banner like one would a battle flag and Constantine’s specifically symbolized a level of commitment. The reason I correlated this banner to Dante was due to the setting the souls are in as a result of their NON-COMMITMENT. Ante-Inferno is where the neutral souls go, such as the archangels who did not choose between Satan and God. Father Millican told me: “Following a banner of any sort would represent the cause or the region for which you would fight, give your life, etc.” So a blank banner they have to chase for eternity is an appropriate punishment to show that there was nothing they gave their life or fought for because they made no distinct choice. *sigh* tragic...
1 comment:
Great blogpost Farah! Personally, I am glad that I chose to take Relgion senior year because of the connections that we can make between it and our English class. I hope that we can read more pieces of literature that involve people’s interpretation of religious facets such as Dante’s interpretation of hell and paradise. I am feeling regretful for not taking philosophy since I heard that they discussed Plato’s Allegory to the Cave in depth and most likely can make connections with other elements of literature that we study,
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