Poet W.S. Merwyn brought his translation of Dante's "Divine Comedy" to a seminar for Claremont College students; they brought their own ethnic diversity, and so it was that a 13th century poem steeped in medieval Christian theology faced the challenge of pluralism.
Dante's tour of eternity takes in all the sites. There is hell for the wicked, purgatory for souls being purified and heaven for the good. In the Inferno, he meets popes he has not admired, but he also meets the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, who is there because only the baptized were allowed in heaven, according to medieval Christian teaching.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday June 2, 1999 Home Edition Southern California Living Part E Page 3 View Desk 1 inches; 16 words Type of Material: Correction
Name misspelled--In Monday's Southern California Living section, the name of poet W.S. Merwin was misspelled.
"Is that fair?" one Hindu student asked Merwyn.
"Dante could not assign people where he wanted to," Merwyn said. "They are where they are because of church doctrine at the time. If you're not a Christian, and I'm not, it's a very strange idea that everything before a certain point in history gets consigned to an outer darkness."
Merwyn is 71, a Pulitzer Prize winner with 39 books to his credit. He has been rereading Dante's poem since his college days for its literary brilliance, not its theology. The two poets' views about eternity seem far apart.
A Presbyterian minister's son, a non-Christian with an affinity for Buddhism, Merwyn's doubts about the medieval idea of afterlife seemed similar to those of the students who met with him and, later, met on their own, to talk about the poem's religious themes.
Hindus, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims, Unitarian Universalists and Christians, most of them freshmen and sophomores, said they did not expect eternity to resemble Dante's vision.
"I'm Catholic, but Catholicism seemed very different in Dante's poem," Geoffrey Pelton said. "Things have changed so much over the centuries. The idea of 'pagans' going to hell and people going to purgatory may still be in the doctrine, but it is not emphasized."
Corrupt Clerics, 196 Years of Violence
Merwyn filled in some historic background.
Thirteenth century Europe was an age of extremes. "The church was at its most powerful and most corrupt," he said. Clerics were relaxed about keeping their vows; they hoarded land, meddled in politics. One pope, Innocent III, launched the Crusades to squelch non-Christians; 196 years of violence followed.
The first war, the Albigensian Crusade of 1209, did personal damage to Dante. It silenced the French Provencal culture that fostered the troubadours, whose romantic love poetry had inspired him. Beatrice, Dante's muse in the "Divine Comedy," had a troubadour's touch.
