Doing *far* too much thinking

[mamadeb]

Given that I'm thinking about the Dante quiz. :)

See, the quiz, which I answered as honestly as possible, put me in Purgatory and labeled me as a "repentant believer." Which, in *my* worldview, I *am*, although, "lust" is only a sin if you act upon it with the wrong person or at the wrong time, and gluttony is just a bad habit, not a sin.

But this isn't my worldview, it's Dante's (or the general medieval Catholic pov) and by that standard, they are sins, and that's fine. Except, by that standard, I'm not only not in purgatory, I'm in the circle of heretics because, although I'm not a Pagan, I'm not a Christian, either. In fact, I'm quite stubbornly and wickedly holding to an outdated set of beliefs from that pov.

It's already a long and complex quiz and for the writers to go into such subtle points is way beyond reasonable, but I'm still amused that I'm sitting here in Purgatory, watching the cool folk descend to warmer levels when some of you are probably in better shape than I am.

Comments

[naomichana.livejournal.com]

I commented on this when I did the quiz in my blog -- technically, a believing Jew should be in Limbo at best. One needs to be a baptized Christian to make it as far as Purgatory. The quiz just didn't ask the right questions on that one. ;)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, but I think Limbo is for those who died before they had a chance to become Christian, which is why the Philosophers, the unbaptized babies and the premissionary pagans are there.

That lets those of us who know the "good news" but reject it out.

:)

[naomichana.livejournal.com]

Your understanding fits perfectly well with more contemporary Catholic doctrine, I think ("more contemporary" meaning "before Vatican II").

The thing is, Dante's Divine Comedy doesn't have post-Biblical Jews, except for Caiaphas and Annas, the priestly enemies of Jesus, who wind up with the hypocrites in the eighth circle (and, judging from the conventions of medieval iconography, one might also count Judas Iscariot in the ninth). They're deep in Hell for reasons not necessarily related to Judaism. However, there are Muslims in Limbo -- Saladin, Avicenna, and Averroes (and Saladin, at least, was known to have had extensive contact with Christians during the Third Crusade!) -- so one can guess that "virtuous" contemporary Jews would've been in the same place.

[cellio]

I got the same result. I would have expected limbo, not purgatory. Or heretics, because I explicitly rejected that world view rather than just not hearing about it. Either way, purgatory is wrong and the test is flawed.

They asked no theology questions beyond belief in God -- nothing about Jesus or the trinity. The (medieval and modern) Catholic view is that you must accept Jesus as your savior, so I'd say that's a pretty big oops that would have weeded out people like us. That and a question about whether you've heard the "good word" [sic] would do the trick, I think; they don't need to lengthen the quiz a lot.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It's a mindset I've seen before. Belief in a single God, reverence for the Bible = "Christian", whether that's with a positive or a negative connotation - everyone who isn't a pagan or an atheist, or holding Eastern beliefs.

Jews and Muslims are a very small percentage of the US population, although the latter is growing. B'hai are even smaller, I believe. It's not really surprising that mindset seems to be default. It's just mildly annoying to be forgotten.