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Dante's doctrine of punishment presupposes certain primary truths which
the Church proclaims today as she did in Dante's day. According to the
Florentine's creed, man must answer to God for his moral life because he
has free will. He cannot excuse his evil deed on the ground of
necessity. Even in the face of planetary influence and of temptation
from within, by his evil inclinations, and from without by solicitation
of other agents man has still such discernment between good and evil and
such power to make choice freely, that moral judgment with him is free.
"Who hath been tried thereby and made perfect," says Holy Writ, "he
shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath
not transgressed and could do evil things, and hath not done them."
(Eccli., XXXI, 10.)
Against this doctrine of free will the sociology, the philosophy and the
medical science of the present day contend with a theory which minimizes
man's accountability for sin if it does not wholly excuse him as the
victim of heredity, environment or society. Literature also, as
reflected not only in the Greek tragedies but in the writings of authors
from Shakespeare to Shaw portray the evil doer as the victim of fate or
determinism.
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