#ripheus

[dilutedh2so4]

Dante put a random Trojan who died a thousand years before Jesus was born and did not worship the Abrahamic God into Heaven

[yuline-in-wonderland]

Oc Masterlist Postlist

Yuline: Height meme Yuline Visual Ref Yuline sketches Yuline's fear Starfish Yuline art

Elizabeth Schoenheit: Height meme Elizabeth Visual Ref Arliegh Wit: Drawing of Arleigh Arleigh Dorm uniform Fun fact 1

Alice Xavier: Kinda intro post Part 4: Who Dr X is based on

Ripheus Kinda intro post

Sparrow Prince: What she looks like in shifter form

[apenitentialprayer]

Paradiso, Lines XX.118-129

[Ripheus], through grace, that from so deep      A fountain wells that never hath the eye      Of any creature reached its primal wave, Set all his love below on righteousness,      Wherefore from grace to grace did God unclose      His eye to our redemption yet to be Whence he believed therein, and suffered not      From that day forth the stench of paganism,      And he reproved therefor the folk perverse. Those Maidens three, whom at the right-hand wheel      Thou didst behold, were unto him for baptism      More than a thousand years before baptizing. Bondanella’s Commentary: (Wherefore from grace... the folk perverse) God bestowed special grace on Ripheus so he was capable of believing by implicit faith. This is comparable to the grace God bestowed upon those special people who were harrowed from Hell when Christ descended to rescue the virtuous pagans - Old Testament figures worthy of salvation. (Those Maidens three... a thousand years before baptizing) The Pilgrim met these three personified theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity in the earthly Paradise at the summit of Mount Purgatory. They provided Ripheus’ baptism. Thus [he] obtained baptism, a rite required for salvation[, ...] after a special act of grace and the intervention of the three maidens, an act that took place a thousand years before baptism even existed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This passage from the Paradiso is probably the clearest post-Constantine suggestion that people who were not Christians in life could potentially be saved that I have ever read. At this point in the story, only three pagans have been shown to be saved; Cato, historically a pagan but who in this story claims to have secretly converted to Christianity before his death; the Emperor Trajan, who according to legend was rescued from damnation after being revived by Gregory the Great and baptized into the faith before dying again; and, of course, Ripheus, given a special grace by God. It’s important to remember, of course, that the Divine Comedy is not primarily a work of theology, but a story about the glory of God. It’s also not considered an authoritative source of Catholic religious teachings, though the work itself is a Catholic work (obviously) based on Catholic theology and worldview. There are a couple of times Dante makes up rules to make the story interesting. BUT... to have a 14th Century Catholic believe that a righteous person could potentially be saved by Jesus Christ despite not being able to have explicit faith in Jesus? To be saved by grace because he “set all his love below on righteousness”? It seems the dreaded Lumen gentium of Vatican II may have some antecedents despite what some critics say.