How Virtuous Virgil Was Lost in Limbo: The Role of the Will in Human Salvation

Jansen, Benjamin J.

doi:10.5840/acpaproc2025626176

Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association

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published on June 28, 2025

Benjamin J. Jansen

https://doi.org/10.5840/acpaproc2025626176

How Virtuous Virgil Was Lost in Limbo
The Role of the Will in Human Salvation

Of all the topics pertaining to the mystery of the human person, few are more perennially piquant than questions surrounding human salvation. This project presents a novel exegetical analysis of the character Virgil from The Divine Comedy and proposes that despite his narrative role as the virtuous personification of human reason, Virgil is actually an inhabitant of Hell. In addition to providing the requisite evidence to substantiate this claim, this paper also explores salient questions concerning Virgil’s fate. For instance, how is it possible that a virtuous, ostensibly sinless individual like Virgil could be denied access to Heaven against his will? The ensuing excursus reveals hidden depths in Dante’s work while simultaneously underscoring the premise that union with God entails more than intellectual understanding. Relationship requires an act of the will.

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