Heaven: Some distinctions in Dante
Dante speaks of the afterlife, and not all of it is bad. In general, people get what they want in Dante. As I have been discussing this with other readers, the example of CS Lewis's The Great Divorce keeps coming up. “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” - CS Lewis, The Great Divorce What I take from this comparison is that the theme of getting what you want, what is often talked about in Dante commentary as "the will" is central to how the souls experience the afterlife. This has different effects at various places along the pilgrimage. Some of these are versions of heaven that end up not really being heaven at all. I want to focus on two...