Washing the Face

[dailyreflections]

"I turned towards him the tear-stained cheeks
and there he made it fully revealed
that colour that Inferno had hidden"

A reminder from Dante - that in his cosmology, we as human souls are originally Good. Becoming virtuous is to return to the natural state, and remove the stains and blockings that have accumulated over decades of lived life.

In some ways in direct contrast to other strains of theology!

R

[Chris]

Powerful reminder that we all are good, but equally Powerful reminder that we all need to wash our face because "There is no one just, not one,
there is no one who understands,
there is no one who seeks God.
All have gone astray; all alike are worthless;
there is not one who does good, there is not even one." as a result of (original) sin.

[richard]

Powerful reminder that we all are good, but equally Powerful reminder that we all need to wash our face because "There is no one just, not one,
there is no one who understands,
there is no one who seeks God.
All have gone astray; all alike are worthless;
there is not one who does good, there is not even one." as a result of (original) sin.

True.
And this opens up big territories in Dante. He largely seems to relate to the original sin in Eden as the "ground mistake" we do, but not something that stains our nature by default (or forever as in some theologies).
The soul in Dante is pure and virtuous and joyful when breathed into the embryo. The potential for sin is there, and inevitably everyone will gather many stains through lived life, to later be cleansed. 
But they are still additions, not internal features in the deep. (Other then as eternal potential/temptations - depending on degrees of distortion).
Just meaning: to the extent that Augustine (and Luther and Calvin) proposes "born guilt", Dante rejects this entirely. His view would be more something like: Born in virtue, but predisposed for suberbia and vice, which is unnatural, and could/should be "washed off" later, gradually.
A very different anthropology - and more aligned with the first centuries of Christianity.