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Unlike conventional Christian morality, he did not think that it was wrong to be happy and to enjoy this life. The great poet did not believe that eternal salvation and earthly happiness were incompatible. Dante also argued that it was necessary for a person to contribute to civic and political life and it was indeed virtuous. This idea proved to be very influential upon later humanists, who played a crucial role in the development of the Renaissance.<ref>Fortin, Ernest L. Dissent and Philosophy in the Middle Ages: Dante and his precursors (Lexington, Lexington Books, 2002), p 14</ref>
====What was Dante and 's impact on religion==during the Renaissance?==
The exiled Florentine was a great religious poet and theologian. His conception of the dual nature of man, one that was earthly and the other that was eternal was decisive in the development of his political doctrine. He argued in his main political work that there should be a separation of church and state. This was something that greatly contributed to Renaissance political thought. Major thinkers such as Machiavelli were influenced by Dante and argued that religion had no place in politics. He believed that politics was a skill and should not be constrained by theological precepts.
When Dante argued that church and state should be separate ensured that the humanists who succeeded him felt free to concentrate on the secular world. He also made it clear that involvement in the secular was not incompatible with their hopes of future salvation. The ideas of Dante not only influenced Renaissance thinkers but also some of the leaders of the Reformation. The exiled Florentine helped to change the discourse on the role of religion in Europe.<ref>Fortin, p 119</ref>
Dante was a forerunner of the humanist movement because he argued that this life had value and that the individual while a part of the community was significant and had a right to self-expression and even happiness. The poet was also an original political and religious thinker and he argued for the then dangerous idea of a separation of church and state. This persuaded many humanists to adopt a more secular approach that was such a feature of civic humanism. However, it should be noted that Dante still had a medieval outlook and he would have disapproved of some of the aspects of the Renaissance in the 15-16th century. Regardless, Dante can be considered because of his immense contributions to one of the founders of the Renaissance.
====Further Reading====
