What is the point of Dante's journey through the after-life? What did it mean to be a Christian in Dante's time?

Dante is
the middle of life when he embarks on his journey to the underworld and then to purgatory and
paradise. At 35midway between birth and his expected death at 70he has lost his way. He no
longer knows his spiritual purpose in life. Therefore, to reorient him, Virgil takes him on a
tour through the inferno.

The nine circles of hell and their various
subgroups offer Dante and the reader a vivid depiction of why one should live a virtuous life in
accordance to God's will. In Dante's time and place, to be a Christian meant to be a Roman
Catholic. There was no Protestant Reformation yet,...