Music to listen to in Limbo

I just finished writing Canto 4 listening to Sea Change by Beck. It's a good album for the Canto of Limbo.

I've been fighting with myself about this chapter because it flies in the face of my own faith as a Christian and it breaks my heart to write Dante's Canto but it's not my story to tell only to interpret.

I want to say a few things about what I believe relative to the concept of Limbo. First of all I am unaware of any official church teachings about such a place either in the Roman or Orthodox traditions.

When I was catechised I was taught that there is Heaven Purgatory and Hell and that God's Judgement determines where one goes after death. My teachers in the faith and the Gospels themselves also talk about Christ's descent into Hell after his crucifixion and death. No one ever speculates on what it was that he did while he was there though Dante makes a guess in Inferno.

My personal belief is that when Christ descended to the dead he did so with the same message and mission that He had on Earth. I've had a lot of time to think about this recently as I prepared for writing Canto 4 and when I ask myself what is Good News about Christ's descent after death the answer I come up with is the Gospel. That salvation is possible with Faith and Grace demonstrated by a changed life.

I want to believe that when Christ went down there he took all those who embraced him not simply those people central to the Old Testament narrative as Dante thinks.

I believe that Salvation could even be possible in Hell because I refuse to believe that God's judgment is the same as ours and because I refuse to believe that God's love is the same as ours. While we have a sense for love and justice ours are imperfect frought with conditions and bias and favouritism while the Love of God is perfect and beyond our ability to imagine it and His Judgment is deeper and so fair that the word pales in describing it.

I have a hard time Concieving of a Hell at all and when I do personally I could imagine it as a place set aside for the rebel Angels and the Devil, a place for the corrupting powers that hold over the earth but not for human souls.

I'm not a Biblical scholar and I don't presume to base this on solid evidence of any kind it's just my feelings on the matter.

I had a hard time writing Canto 4, maybe harder than I imagine I'll have writing anything except perhaps the Suicides (but that's for a future post). One thing that made it easier was listening to my wife's copy of Sea Change by Beck it's a beautiful album which is full of sorrow and like the illustrations in my favourite copy of Inferno it reminds me of Los Angeles.