I was on Wikipedia one day, and I discovered this very interesting story. It is called The Divine Comedy. It was written in the Middle Ages by a man named Dante (I can't pronounce his last name, srry) It is basically a christian view on the afterlife. I thought the most interesting part of the story was Dante's descent into hell. So anyway I want to ask what is the view by Christians on this epic about the christian afterlife.

Yes, Dante's inferno. I've heard of this. I don't always believe extra biblical books though.

JonXMasterZZMan : The Divine Comedy was and always has been, the greatest epic poem of the middle ages. With that being said, Dante's Inferno is not a depiction of the afterlife but really Dante's view of what the afterlife should be in his opinion. This is no more a story of fiction than anything, but has warped are view of what are modern view of Hell is.

I've never read the Divine Comedy, but from what I understand, it's not a depiction of the afterlife, but it's an allegory.
I think seeron's got it right haha.

If you read the Divine Comedy and know the background that Dante was writing at that time, you can tell that it is allegory.

I recently took an Western Lit. class and it is interesting to see that the great authors and philosophers of the past were in limbo according to this book. They were not even suffering, in fact they were just chilling. It is also interesting to see that many religious leaders that are frauds or betrayers are in the deeper parts of hell compared to other sins. Those who know Dante's background, he was in exile when writing this, and the people that are in the deeper parts of hell are the people that Dante was writing against. You also can see him tooting his own horn on his writing throughout this book. Finally, he is trying to imitate how Jesus went to hell and back up again between his death and resurrection. The entire book was done in the span of 3 days, starting from Good Friday, which Dante is trying to imitate that.