Why Dante?

"Dante's Inferno" has inspired many for centuries because he took the intangible and made it tangible. Religion is extremely intangible with its lack of physical evidence, and oftentimes its direct contradiction with science. Now it seems hard to believe that there's any room in the universe for a "hell" or a "heaven," but Dante made a place for it in his world. In his trilogy, the "Divine Comedy," he took the divine and made it earthly. It's such an interesting concept, no-one had ever done it so thoroughly as he had before, thus his novel has lived through the test of time. He categorized each sin from bad to horrible and came up with fitting punishments. Then, to further clarify what each sin was, he gave examples, not only from his contemporaries, but from the Bible, and Greek and Roman mythology.
The Bible's description of anything is a big vague, and there's so much of it that one might not be able to fully grasp each of the concepts. In his "Inferno" he explains what not to do so one can avoid suffering the punishments that he describes therein. He takes the concept of sin, and describes through examples what the Bible means and makes it obvious to the common man why not to sin. His colorful and illustrative painting of hell makes one shiver when one realizes what could happen to him. The details of the punishments are laid out so plainly that one truly understands the wrath of God. He truly made the vague, intangible parts of religion more understandable by his in-depth descriptions of the places one would live, the punishments one would have to suffer, as well as all the beasts one might encounter if one were to be condemned to an eternity in hell.
Even though the politics of the Church were dubious at best during Dante's time, he makes sure that the reader understands the wrath of God, which can even fall upon those who "serve" the Church. He makes it plainly clear that the reader knows that even though the Church is lax and does not always uphold Christian values, Christian values are important and one could be condemned to hell for not following them. He details thoroughly the harsh justice that God serves and how painfully fair hell is, even with all pain and agony. I thought it extremely interesting that he had hell being a very strict place with many rules, but I guess with a place so chock full of sinners, a lot of order is needed. Dante lays down the law of the Bible, to make the vague and confusing more understandable, so that men do not incur the wrath of God, and therefor have to suffer the consequences. In this sense, it seems like a warning, do not do this, all though these seem like very easy sins to commit, because this is what will happen. He takes the wrath of God very seriously and impresses this need to not sin upon the reader, so that one does not have to suffer for an eternity.
Dante is also very exact in he placement of hell. It's like he was thinking, these sins are not as bad, and therefore do not have as harsh punishments, and here are some examples of people who would go here. But this makes it extremely clear to the reader, ok, don't do this, I don't want to suffer this for all of eternity. I like how he orders sins from bad to worse, and how much order and structure there is in a place so full of sin. The people in there are people who did not have Christian values and structure in their lives, but now have to suffer the very worst of it. I also think it's interesting how he matched up every sin with a fitting punishment, like this sin is horrible and you have to suffer through being frozen in ice for the rest of eternity. He seems a very strong believer in the fact that the punishment should fit the crime. He also was very exact in his placement of examples, both contemporaries to Dante and people from Greek and Roman mythology. He weighed their crimes and strategically placed these people where they best desrved to be. They provided a guide to the reader so s/he knew exactly what circle s/he was in and the weight of the sin. This way, he can show how unbelieveably just hell is. The reader will recognize the examples and, hopefully, agree that this punishment fits the example's crime.
He made the intangible tangible through his description of the divine. He tells people what not to do, what will happen to them if they do, and what level of sin it is. He takes such an organized and rational approach to religion, which seems almost contraditory, which makes it impressive. His unusual approach to the afterlife had never been approached this way (as far as I know), and his detailed description of what cannot be known is so well thought out, that it's almost like, ok this must be right. His "Divine Comedy" stood the test of time because he took the divine and made it comprehendable to the human mind.