...and on...and on...

Cathy, Mari, and I have been attending a writing class conducted by a very friendly Fundamentalist lady. We were enjoying it so very much that we hardly noticed when the reading assignments became gradually more anti-Catholic. It wasn't too bad, but a few weeks ago, when I read our assignment, I immediately requested an emergency discussion with Love2Learn Mom.

We had been given selections of literature from the Dark Ages. These included a section of The Inferno, by Dante. They were accompanied by a commentary by the Christian textbook, which commented on Dante's being excommunicated, and also on his supposed unbelief in the "non scriptural idea of purgatory". Now we do know that Dante disbelieved a few of the Catholic doctrines, but he did believe in purgatory.

Our discussion opened by checking to make sure we had all read the same section:) For those wishing to discuss this at home, it was The Entrance to Hell, up until Dante falls into a trance at the side of the river. (Canto III)

We talked about the punishments, and the appropriateness of said punishments. Particularly the "lukewarm" people who, through avoiding choices and through general indifference to right and wrong, have placed themselves in between Heaven and Hell in a woefully indifferent atmosphere.

We first had to figure out the exact definition of "lukewarm". More specifically, what was it those people did that classed them as lukewarm and earned them their eternal state of stagnancy? We tried to come up with real life examples of this sort of complacency. D'Maire, who is also a Catholic involved in this class, mentioned people who have a vague belief in God, but have some trivial reason (e.g. they met an errant priest) for not attending church or raising their children in a specific faith.

We came up with several other examples, but decided that in general, it boiled down to caring and acting and being passionate rather than being lazy and indifferent and too scared to move out of one's comfort zone. We talked about the quote from the bible, "I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Rev. 3:156-16) We decided that even if you were moving in a not-so-good direction, you would at least be moving, and if your intentions were right, then God could work with you.

Less relevantly, we talked about the extremes of the virtues, e.g. the extremes of hope - despair and presumption.

We also went off on several interesting tangents concerning the class, defending the faith and when and how to approach it appropriately, Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech, and how some people prefer to pray when they have a problem instead of praying and doing their part to reason and help God help them. (Like the joke about the shipwrecked man and the helicopters - or something like that - I don't remember how the joke goes.)

We had two other discussions on this class, and apologetics, soon after, and I will post about them presently (I think).