For this topic, let’s imagine how we’d like to “leave this mortal coil,” to “make our exit,” or to “start
pushing up the daisies.” The chapter reading for this week gives us ample examples and suggestions, a
kind of blueprint, for how we could imagine this. These range from the personally eccentric examples laid
out in the “Going out BIG” section, to the monumental markers on an architectural scale laid out in the
section on “Ego,” or would you prefer to be physically preserved forever for all to see?
These are just some starting points to get you inspired- you don’t have to answer these questions, they are
meant to fire up some ideas within your brainstorming.
Are there special items that you’d like to accompany your corpse? Maybe it’s that favorite light saber,
lucky hat, wedding ring, your baseball card collection, an important religious object, or that 1967 Chevy
Camero with white leather interior?
Do you want to share your (cremated) remains among your loved ones? What should they do with them—
put them in amulets on chains, in an urn on the mantle, or resting in more traditional place like a
cemetery?
Or would you select a burial, in your favorite car perhaps, in a custom Kane Kwei-style coffin shaped like
a chicken, or in a giant crypt with your favorite 60” television, with a full bar and a butler, or with any of
the other things you need in the afterlife?
Do you want a ritualized celebration honor with fireworks, dancing, or the Pope, or any other religious
figure’s, blessing?
These examples are all rooted in ancient traditions, the art of which is covered in this chapter, that
predate our contemporary traditions. Keep in mind that these scenarios are imaginary, so be as creative
as possible.
Provide the following for your summary:
Describe your idea of how you would like to orchestrate your end of life ceremony.
List a minimum of 3 specific ideas that are personal and individually tailored to the person you are.
Provide specific examples of how your ideas are related to the art of this specific section of the textbook.
All of your ideas must be related to an example from the week’s chapter reading. Describe how something
you learned this week relates to the three personalized ideas listed above remember to be specific.
Provide the image embedded within your discussion.
Sample Solution
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
