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Mysticism And Death In The Divine Comedy

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Early Christian thinking over mysticism and death stressed notions of love with God and trying to come into contact with God for the experience that contact gives. Mystics, who can be defined as those who wish to go on a generic search for union with the divine, were heavily focused on the physical experience of encountering their creator. For Christians, the goal was to come into contact with God. Many Christian mystics, which include Catherine of Genoa and even Julian of Norwich, have written over their religious experiences of contacting with God. A central theme that is described in their writings is the act of preparing the soul for the journey into the afterlife. To many mystics, the way to purify your soul differed, but the importance of purifying the soul of the original sin of Adam and Eve was pedestrian and paramount to one’s salvation. In this respect, Dante Aligheieri, the famous Italian poet, can be described as a mystic due to underlying Christian themes of death and preparing the soul for the afterlife present in his most famous poem: The Divine Comedy. By addressing and emphasizing themes of love, free will, and suffering, Dante’s Purgatorio, the second story in the Divine Comedy, represents themes that describe and reinforce Christian underpinnings of preparing one’s soul for the afterlife. All in all, these themes represent elements of popular religion because every Christian was exceptionally concerned about their place afterlife, specifically whether or

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