Dante Discussion and Reflections

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...

Canto XXVII, Line 112ff:  Translation available here (link) “When I died, Francis came for me. But one of the black cherubim Said to him, ‘Hands off this one—don’t wrong me now! “‘Down he goes among the legions of my slaves Because he gave fraudulent counsel. Ever since that moment, I’ve been waiting to snatch him by the hair. “‘If a guy doesn’t repent, he can’t be pardoned. And he can’t repent a thing yet still want it. That’s a contradiction that won’t stand.’ “Oh what a load of sorrow I am! How I came to with a shock When he grabbed me, saying, ‘Perhaps You never imagined I’d be versed in logic!’ Guido I da Montefeltro dies and there is a standoff between a demon and a Saint. The Saint loses, and the why of this might give some insight into what inferno really is. Guido was a master at strategy and as such was able to trick others and manipulate events in this world. He was sufficiently repentant to, late in life, join the Franciscan order so that he could work penance for his...

Why are these two pagan figures redeemed in Dante's comedy?  First , grace breaks the power of the law.  For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.   What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!  (Romans 6:14-15) So, the work of salvation follows from the fact that only one mortal person has ever lived according to the law. That person's willing submission to both the law and the injustice of his martyrdom created a path for the rest of humanity, which has broken the law to varying degrees, to be saved by grace. This is a mystery, even in our own case, much less in the lives of others.  Therefore :  Cato is no more a sinner in some way than are any of the rest of us. The grace is not our will, but God's. We do well to submit our will and practice it through a quest for humility. Second , No rules govern where grace can be dispensed.  It seems clear that both Ca...

Purgatory is completely different than Inferno.  Inferno was more like a zoo of sin. It was gawking. Dante is participating in the sin of those that he is observing and the whole mess leaves the reader feeling a pull between empathy and superiority. The element of hope is missing from inferno, and we are reminded of this as we go through the gate into hell. I think that the absence of hope is why Virgil continues to encourage the pilgrim to move away from empathy. It is also possible that the empathy plays a darker role. The more we think that the sinners are like us the more we think that our sins are not as bad as these exemplars. We start to feel like we cannot be judged by comparison to these extreme sinners. That provokes sin form the pilgrim who is walking through the circles and encourages the pilgrim to accept sinfulness as long as it is of a lesser degree.   That problem of empathy is not a problem in purgatory. Purgatory has sinners as well, and what is surprisi...