Limbo is the first circle of INFERNO, the first ring of hell--but that's already a problem. How can limbo be in hell? Isn't it a state somewhere between the redeemed and the damned?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I talk through the developing theological notions of Limbo before and up to Dante's day--and the ways our poet has chosen to change church doctrine to suit his purposes.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[00:46] The basic definition of Limbo.

[01:30] My interpretive framework: everybody fences in the world. Then you have to explain the world and maintain your fence.

[05:18] Traditionally, there are two sorts of Limbo: of the fathers and of the babies.

[08:08] Wait! Babies in some state of punishment? Who wants that? (Well, Saint Augustine.)

[10:45] Aquinas backs away and claims that babies are indeed in Limbo but are "happy." To which Bonaventura says, "Not so fast."

[14:08] The five ways Dante-the-poet changes the notion of Limbo to fit his poem.