Episode Details

Limbo is the first circle of INFERNO . . . although that statement already presents a problem. How can Limbo be in hell? Isn't it a state somewhere between the redeemed and the damned?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I talk through the developing theological notions of Limbo before and up to Dante's day, as well as the ways our poet has chosen to change church doctrine to suit his purposes.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[00:46] The basic definition of Limbo: from the Latin "limbus," a "hem."

[01:30] My interpretive framework: Everybody fences the world.

[05:18] In Dante's day, there were thought to be two sorts of Limbo: the one of the fathers and the one of the children (or babies).

[08:03] Wait! Who wants to punish babies? Well, Saint Augustine, for one.

[10:42] Saint Thomas Aquinas backs away and claims that babies are in Limbo but are "happy." To which Saint Bonaventure says, "Not so fast--not happy, but longing and unrest."

[14:16] The five ways Dante-the-poet changes Limbo to fit his poem.