For a follower of almost any faith that believes in salvation, declaring someone worthy of Heaven is not a simple matter. It may require faith, right belief, right conduct, discipline, and perhaps a lifetime of following the prescribed path. But sending someone to Hell can be remarkably easy. Sometimes, one word is enough: “Unbeliever.”
Of course, different faiths may use different words. The exact terminology may vary, but the underlying idea can be similar: those who do not accept one’s faith, or who refuse to follow its prescribed path, are placed outside the circle of salvation.
And it is not always enough to persuade “the other” to accept one’s faith and convert. There may also be a concern with guarding the particular interpretation of that faith within one’s own sampradāya or sect, and with ensuring that the convert carefully follows all the expected “dos and don’ts.” In other words, it is not merely a matter of bringing someone into the faith; there can also be a strong desire to make sure that the newcomer follows the faith correctly—and therefore, presumably, reaches Heaven.
This immediately reminded me of Dante. Centuries ago, Dante had already turned a similar problem into a serious theological question. Fortunately, he could not simply dismiss the question from his mind. He put it into poetry, leaving it for all of us to think about.
Although Dante wrote within the Christian tradition, the question he raises can be applied much more broadly to any religious tradition that claims to possess the decisive path to salvation and regards those outside that path as spiritually lost.
Robert Antoine quotes the relevant passage from Dante in his essay “Like the Grain of Wheat.” Dante imagines a man born on the banks of the Indus, where there is no one to tell him about Christ and no one to write or read about Christ. Yet this man lives a good and upright life. He is “Rightly disposed, in conduct not amiss, / Blameless in word and deed,” but he dies an unbeliever and unbaptised.
Dante then asks the question that is difficult to escape:
“For ‘Here’s a man’, thou saidst, ‘born of some breed
On Indus’ bank, where there is none to tell
Of Christ, and none to write, and none to read;
He lives, so far as we can see, quite well,
Rightly disposed, in conduct not amiss,
Blameless in word and deed; yet infidel
And unbaptised he dies; come, tell me this:
Where is the justice that condemns the man
For unbelief? What fault is it of his?’”
Dante then presses the matter even further:
“Now, who art thou to be a judge, and scan
Truth from thy bench a thousand miles away,
With thy short sight that carries but a span?”
These lines strike me because the question is not merely about an innocent man on the banks of the Indus. It is about our confidence in judging another person’s ultimate destiny.
How easily we pronounce judgment! We do not really know who is a believer and who is an unbeliever in the depths of another person’s heart. Yet we measure another person’s faith and belief by our own standards and then decide where that person stands before God. Sometimes, it seems, we can do it with a single word:
“Unbeliever.”
And that is precisely where Dante’s question becomes
uncomfortable:
“Now, who art thou to be a judge?”
Perhaps Dante’s genius was that he could not simply accept the easy answer. Even within his own theological world, he allowed the question to trouble him: If a person has never heard of Christ, yet lives a good and upright life, what justice is there in condemning him merely for unbelief?
And Dante goes even further. In the following canto, he places the pagan Rhipeus in Heaven—a Trojan who, according to Dante’s imaginative theology, received a special grace from God.¹ Even Dante’s poetic universe therefore leaves us with a surprising reminder that God’s judgment may be considerably wider than our own categories.
That brings me back to the joke.
Perhaps declaring someone worthy of Heaven is indeed a difficult business. But sending someone to Hell?
Very easy.
Just one word:
“Unbeliever.”
Dante, however, makes us pause before we say it:
“Now, who art thou to be a judge?”
And perhaps that is a question worth asking before we send anyone—anyone at all—to Hell.
footnote
¹ Robert Antoine, “Like the Grain of Wheat,” in Gispert-Sauch, S.J., ed., God’s Word Among Men: Papers in Honour of Fr. Joseph Putz, S.J. (Delhi: Vidyajyoti, 1973), 141–143. Antoine quotes Dante’s Paradiso, Canto XIX, 70–81.
Ashram, August 14, 2026
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