The Divine Comedy

Dante views the wretch Satan, frozen in Cocyrus, doomed to chew Judas for eternity.

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The first part of The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, details Alighieri's journey into Hell, as guided by the Roman poet Virgil. Virgil and Dante travel into the Earth, through the Nine Circles of Hell. The Circles are arranged concentrically, directly below Jerusalem, moving towards the center of the Earth.
As Virgil and Dante pass through each Circle, they survey the sinners punished there as Virgil explains how and why they are so imprisoned. In the final Circle, the Ninth, Dante and Virgil encounter Satan. The fallen angel Lucifer is in the form of a monstrous, grotesque beast imprisoned in the ice of the lake Cocytus. He has three mouths, with which he eternally chews on the sinners Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot.
After leaving Hell, Dante and Virgil venture to Mount Purgatory, where they scale the heights. Along the way, Dante and Virgil encounter all of those who did not repent until the last minute, and are now forced to live out their time on Earth in Purgatory before they can gain entrance to Heaven.
At the summit of Mount Purgatory, a sleeping Dante is confronted with an angel, who purges him of the recently-accreted sin remaining from his journey through Hell, and Dante is forced to endure many of the trials of Purgatory before proceeding to Heaven.
Upon entry to Heaven, Dante's guide, Virgil, disintegrates, being a pagan. The woman Beatrice descends, and assumes Virgil's position as guide, and Dante and Beatrice journey through the Nine Spheres of Heaven.
Each Sphere, similar to Hell and Purgatory, is allotted to a single noble attribute, or one that is lacking in one of the devoted.
In the final Sphere of Heaven, Dante and Beatrice view God as a point of light, surrounded by swarming and frothing rings of angels. Beatrice leaves Dante, as at this point, theology has reached its limit. At last, Dante approaches the Almighty and views him for true.
God appears to Dante as three radiant orbs mingling with each other, in representation of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.
In viewing God, Dante's soul is scoured with absolution, making his life and love fit together, and Dante experiences omnipresent unity. The book ends as Dante regards the circles, trying to comprehend just how they fit together.

Dante lays eyes upon God, surrounded by rings of angels.

The Divine Comedy is, without question, one of the most in-depth and penetrating analyses of religion, Heaven and Hell in existence. It is over 14,000 lines long.
The Divine Comedy, while providing inspiration for artists and authors of all variety, also frequently provides a focal point for religious antagonism. While Dante wrote the Comedy with a unifying clarity and meticulous attention to detail, many religious devotees despise a work so exact. As Dante's work is so widely accepted, they are irate at its ability to easily become the belief of many, and, at length, to become a universal belief. Some believe Dante to be a madman, while some truly believe that Dante did travel to all three sacred Realms.
In the end, as is the truth with all religions...who knows?

~Peter