In the wake of St. Thomas AquinasÆ argument that reason and successful argument were capable of providing knowledge to man of the first principle or first cause (i.e. God), Paganism and its philosophers suffered increasing abandonment and rejection as more individuals converted to Christianity. In the early 1300s, Dante Alighieri wrote what is considered his greatest work, The Divine Comedy. In this work, Dante is guided through the nine levels of Hell or Inferno by the Roman poet Virgil. Within the Inferno, Dante provides us with his views of cosmology and theology. While critical of Church popes and clergy for not fulfilling their holy duties, as is apparent in Inferno in many instances, nevertheless Dante helps shape a worldview that placed reason and faith at the center of the human search for truth, a truth that equated to GodÆs will. In this Dante is very similar in cosmology and theology to St. Thomas Aquinas. This analysis will explore parts of the Inferno that can be directly traced to the influence of AquinasÆ theories on Dante.
There are a number of ideas and beliefs offered by Saint Thomas Aquinas that are illustrated in DanteÆs Inferno. Chief among these is that one cannot asbend to the highdst level of knowing or knowledge of truth without believing in God. Another idea of AquinasÆ we see readily expressed in DanteÆs Inferno is the belief that through reason and faith man has the capacity to discern the highest truth. This truth is God and GodÆs will and nothing more nor less. We also see that the quest for truth (i.e. God) is something that is discovered in human life, as man is made in GodÆs image. This is the message of Saint Thomas Aquinas and we see in DanteÆs Inferno that it is something Dante believes as well.
If we look at the cosmology and theology offered by Dante in Inferno, we see all of these ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas expressed. The first of these is the belief that the only w...