Dante Discussion and Reflections

 Can you know the place where you are from without viewing it from the outside?  Dante is in exile. He sets up his poem as a story of pilgrimage. It is a universal story. Pilgrimage is an analogy for life. In a way we are on a pilgrimage because we have been removed from some perfect version of love and relationship with our creator and are wandering among the created world distracted by events that seem urgent and important but are neither in the grand scheme of things. It is one of the accepted interpretations of Dante's opening Canto that the wood that he is lost in is reflecting the wood of the suicides that we later encounter in Inferno canto XIII. Dante is lost in a wood that makes it harder to see how to ascend the mountain. He is blocked by animals that make it impossible to proceed but by taking a circuitous route. Dante's exile in reality is neatly illustrated by the self-doubt and dark confusion of this analogy. There is something universal in this frustration. Virg...

The thing about Paradiso is that perspective matters. Sts. Dominic and Francis have different emphasis in their spiritual life and both are needed. In an important way the only reconciliation between the intellectual life of the Dominicans and the transcendent life of the Franciscans is that they are both part of the kingdom of God. Every human is created in some way to contribute to the tapestry of God's plan. So, let's try to unpack this by analogy.  Picasso is the master of Perspective, introducing cubism and going beyond this late into his career like TÊTE DE FEMME below from 1958.  The Crisis of Modernity for Art It isn't obvious what it is about Picasso's work that is so appealing. That doesn't stop people from explaining it. In my own understanding, the artist, was among the best realist painters from the end of the 19th century (following his father, a portraiture artist). At the point where photography threatened the place of portraiture as an art form, th...

Dante's comedy can be rendered into three parts that correspond to various notions of the church and the kingdom of God.  The Church Militant  - Earth The Church Penitent - Purgation  The Church Triumphant  - Heaven (Communion of Saints) The church militant is the church overshadowed by Mars. In Canto 2 of purgatory the white fog is illuminated by the rising sun and Mars is on the horizon obscured in its redness by the fog and the light.  And behold! Right there, in the mists of the morning, Like Mars’ glowing red through the fog And suspended low above the sea’s western edge [...] -- Translation by Mark Scarbrough  In this passage Mars is mentioned, the reference is obscure, but some credence is given to the idea that Mars represents the church Militant here by reading the unfinished Convivo by Dante (Scarbrough).  This made me think that the three things being mentioned here might be a compass point for understanding the transition from Inferno to P...

Inferno is about getting stuck by sin. Purgatory is about growth and progress. The two together give us much to think about with regard to sin in our lives. I think I learned that progress can be a state of mind and that hope, as a christian virtue, is an important aspect of the progress of a soul.  Inferno The inferno is divided into two major parts, the areas outside of the gates of Dis and the part that is within the infernal city, behind the gates. To be within the city of hell involves a willful cooperation with sin. All sins that lie outside of the city are not necessarily willful, they reflect a going-along-with sin, but they don't reflect a premeditated conscience choice. Some have called the sins outside of the walls as sins of incontinence.  For sins of incontinence, sinners simply failed to use what was available to them to learn how to moderate or constrain their temptations in this world. Francesca should have known that it was dangerous to be alone with her broth...

A pilgrim church has an ambulatory allowing visitors to walk around the church on the inside, often behind the alter. The church is meant to be experienced, to be lived in and invites you to explore all parts. In the picture above, you can see the open aisles on the outside of the church where, if you have visited churches in Europe, one might imagine the faithful praying while tourists are walking around snapping pictures.  There are many things in Purgatory that cause the reader to think about a church. In particular in Canto 10 the moving statues that describe Mary, David, and Trajan seem like either side chapels or pieces of art that are venerated in a great Cathedral. The constant hymns that are being sung around Dante complete this effect.  The ante-Purgatory of Cantos 1-9 make me think of the parking lot of a church. There is something different about this space. Outside the church the sinners are doing what they can to be there. Maybe you have had this experience....

How is it that a Roman emperor is here not only in purgatory, but as a model of virtue alongside Mary and David?  (Purgatorio 10) There are many thoughts that I have when trying to reconcile the pre-modern Dante with my own inherited worldview. One of the reasons to read Dante is to step outside of this framework. It is hard. A redeemed Cato, a reconciliation for the excommunicated. All of these elements interfere with my own private and shriveled sense of justice. I want justice to fit within my own understanding. What is evil gets punished and what is good gets rewarded. I think what I learn from the New Testament is that no one would survive that test. We are all sinners and have fall short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23), so we rely on grace.  So, Trajan is clearly a noble ruler. He built infrastructure, he created grain programs for the poor and expanded the Alimenta for orphaned children, he expanded his empire. All of these works are great amid the normal temptations...