Eden

The class arrives at Jiang's next step when a student states that they are effectively in Eden already, which explains why angelic guards and serpent imagery belong in this region of Mount Purgatory.

Jiang argues that Christians should be surprised by angels and a snake in Purgatory because redemption should imply that Eden is open again to humanity rather than permanently sealed off.

Jiang treats Dante as fundamentally optimistic here: redeemed humanity can pass through Eden, and that reopened access is evidence that original sin has been forgiven.

A student compares Satanic temptation to the serpent in Eden, where deceptive questioning and verbal precision undermine trust and draw the listener into false inference.

The conventional picture voiced by the class treats Eden as the best possible place and the fruit as maximally desirable, which sets up Jiang's later reversal about responsibility.

A student then asks whether Eden complicates the whole framework, since Adam and Eve may not have understood good and evil before the tree and thus may not have possessed full free will in the first place.

A student argues that the tree’s presence in Eden already proves human freedom existed from the beginning, because God left the forbidden option available instead of removing it.

Jiang says Dante can be read the same way: if God had not wanted humans to exercise free will, he would not have placed the tree there or forbidden it in the first place.