Dante's Divine Comedy

In this episode we're having our good friend Tom LA Books back for a conversation about the Big Picture of the Divine Comedy! 

We'll talk about how we can see some of the major themes of this overall picture in the contrast between Ulysses' "Mad Flight" in Inferno, and the beginning of the Journey in Paradiso. We'll also touch on philosophy, theology, psychology, practical life-advice from Dante, how life can change around 30, and countless small points and ideas of wisdom and beauty everywhere in the Comedy.

Join us for an excellent conversation with Ivy League Professor Dr. Phil Cary, about the structure of Dante's Cosmology and the 24 wise people in the sphere of the Sun.

We'll also talk about the movement of the souls, and his favorite moments of wisdom and beauty from the Divine Comedy.

Thanks for listening!

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Dr. Phillip Cary is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, where he is also Scholar-in-Residence at the Templeton Honors College. After receiving his B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Cary earned his M.A. in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University. Professor Cary is a recent winner of the Lindback Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching at Eastern University. He has also taught at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Hartford. As the Arthur J. Ennis Post-Doctoral Fellow at Villanova University, he taught the nationally recognized undergraduate Core Humanities seminars on ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern thought. As a scholar, Professor Cary's specialty is the thought of Augustine, but he has also published scholarly articles on Luther, the doctrine of the Trinity, and personal knowledge. His most recent books include two on Augustine, Inner Grace and Outward Signs, both published by Oxford University Press in 2008, as well as a commentary on the book of Jonah, also in 2008, published by Brazos Press.

In the episode we'll look at the arts and architecture of the 13 hundreds, and the events with the Rise of Banking Families, an economic crash, the Black Death, and the temporary move backwards with the Oligarchy of the Albizzi Family.

Overall movements are still the Rise of the Merchant Classes and Growth of Cities, and we'll see how the Albizzi Oligarchy creates the conditions for the next century with the Age of Medici and the artistic explosion of the Florentine Renaissance.

Thanks for listening!

In this episode we're having our first guest here on the podcast! We're very happy to present for you Tommaso Todesca in LA, who's currently making an excellent 100 video series on the Divine Comedy on his youtube channel, and we'll discuss the role that Dante is playing in his life, and his favorite scenes and discoveries from each of the three books.

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
00:53 - Dante
11:24 - Inferno
28:30 - Purgatory
36:20 - Garden of Eden
44:54 - Paradiso

In this episode we'll look at the historical events of the 12 hundreds in Florence, with the rise of the Merhcant class, the rivalries between dynasties, and the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. This is a very helpful background to understand more of how Dante's outlook on the World was shaped in the first 35 years of his life, and the conditions and tensions he was caught up in when he became a Prior of the City, in the Summer of 1300.

In this episode we'll look at Epistle VII that Dante wrote to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, after Henry's descent into Italy in 1310. 

We'll go through the historical context of the letter, as well as Dante's life in exile after 1304, and the immediate aftermath of Henry's conquest. We'll also look at some passages in "The Paradiso" with Dante's description of becoming a "Party of One" after breaking with the White Guelphs, and how Beatrice presents Henry VII's place in the Heavens.

In this second episode on the historical background for Dante's Epistle I to Cardinal Niccolò da Prato in 1304, we'll look at the events from Dante's summer as a Prior in June 1300, until the entering of the French Prince Charles of Valois into Florence in November, 1301.

We'll also look at the politics and strategies from Corso Donati, the head of the Neri, by going to Rome during these months, and laying plans with Pope Boniface VIII and the French King Philip the Fair.

In the Epistle XI to the Italian Cardinals in 1314, Dante both makes a plea to elect an Italian Pope and return the Papacy to Rome, and also compares the Church to the Greek Myth of Phaethon, who loses control over Apollo's Sun Chariot - and burns down the world.

We'll also discuss the contexts provided by Italian scholars Claudio Rendino and Gian Luca Potestà.

In 1314 Dante wrote an Epistle to the Italian Cardinals defending himself from the charge that he was behaving like Uzzah in the old Biblical Stories, who was struck dead as he touched the Holy Ark. Dante then separates the Church, from the Scripture.

After ascending up the mountain we’re entering into the Garden of Eden, where the Pilgrim meets Beatrice and drinks from the two rivers of Lethe and Eunoë. The first river is to remove the memories of sins, and the second is to restore the memories of all the Good in the world and in Life. There are also two big allegorical scenes with the symbolic entering of Scripture, and the History of the Church up to Dante’s time in the thirteen hundreds. After the final moments by the river of Eunoë – the Pilgrim is now fully reborn, ready and eager, to rise into the Stars.

Enjoy!

On the Seventh and last Terrace we’ll meet the souls of the Lustful, and the Pilgrim is talking with the poets Guido Guinizelli and Arnault Daniel. And then they meet the Angel of Joy, and go through the wall of Fire – the spiritual purification. The final Terrace ends with a beautiful dream of flowers and the Active and Contemplative Life, and in the very last verses Virgil has a final and Crowning Speech for the Pilgrim.

Enjoy!

As the Pilgrim, Virgil and Statius enter the Sixth Terrace they come to a strange tree and hear a voice within – symbolic of the “theophany” where the Divine shows itself to the three Poets. This is in some ways the result from the “spiritual release” in the previous Terrace, as the soul is now having an increased capacity to perceive the Divine. We also meet the Gluttons, who are very thin souls and metaphorically spiritually “starved” – which expands on the theme of the nature of the Soul and its relation to the Earthly Body.

Enjoy!

In the Fifth Terrace we’ll meet the penitents for the Vice of Avarice or Greed, as well as the moment of the whole Mountain trembling and the meeting of the transitional figure of the Roman Poet Statius, who was a secret Christian. This symbolizes an important expansion of the figure of Virgil as a guide, and a gradual change towards Beatrice and the nature of the Earthly Paradise and Paradiso itself.

Enjoy!

When we reach the Fourth Terrace the night is coming closer, and Virgil is giving an explanation to the Pilgrim about Love as the motive force for also the Vices, in the three versions of misdirected Love, too little Love, and excessive Love. This three-fold explanation also gives the structure of the Seven Levels of the Mountain, and the theme of Love (with the Natural and Rational Love) then becomes the central theme at the Heart of Purgatory (in Chapter 17), and also for the whole Divine Comedy as a literary work. Love is that which moves the Sun and the Other Stars – and Dante connects our Free Will with the opportunity to choose the Good Love as the guiding Light in our lives.

Enjoy!

The Terrace of Wrath is clouded in thick, black smoke, symbolic of the blinding nature of the emotion of Wrath and Anger. This level opens with examples of Meekness and Gentleness, before we get some thoughts on Reason as important to mitigate and manage the emotion of Wrath, and the role of Free Will in creating the evil in the world, as explained by the soul Marco Lombardo. The attack on the Church is also especially wrathful in these chapters. But the overall message is a positive one, our ability and capacity for the Good.

Enjoy!

On the Second Terrace we’ll meet the souls who are repenting for Envy, metaphorically with their eyes sewn shut by Iron Threads. The offsetting Virtues are here Love/Charity and Generosity, and Virgil has a long speech on both the sources of Envy, and the multiplying effects of having values of Spiritual Good more than the Earthly. The healing effects of the Climb continues as the Pilgrim now only has five of the seven scars left on his forehead, as they reach the next Terrace.

Enjoy!

The First Level of Purgatory is the Terrace of Pride, where the souls are carrying heavy stone slabs on their backs to apprehend a new sense of Humility towards the limitations of human nature and the rational Intellect. This was Dante the Writer’s own main Vice in life, and we’ll first get three examples of Humility from the Biblical Stories and Roman History, as the Virtue to offset and balance the Pride. An implied theme here is also that the Vice of Pride is underlying and amplifying all the other Vices further up the Mountain.

Enjoy!

In chapter 9 we’ve reached the Gate of Purgatory, and the threshold to the Terraces in the Purgatory Proper. The Pilgrim has first fallen asleep and had a prophetic dream about an Eagle lifting him up to the consuming Fire, and then learns that St. Lucia carried him up to the Gate in his sleep. Symbolically this chapter is a movement into a deeper and more spiritual part of the Climb, and the slowness of Ante-Purgatory is now left behind us.

Enjoy!

In chapter 8 of the Purgatory we’ll see the scene of the Two Angels and the Serpent, playing out an eternal battle between the forces of vices and the virtues. The Pilgrim also discovers three new Guiding Lights in the emerging night skies – the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Love/Charity. In a deeper sense this chapter starts the transition from the more Earthly Ante-Purgatory to the more theologically layered experience of the Terraces of Purgatory.

Enjoy!

In this episode we’ll cover chapter 5-7 in the Ante-Purgatory, where the Pilgrim and Virgil meet Sordello, as a new Guide who is a Roman Poet but also had Faith and is among the saved souls. There is also an incredible beauty as they enter the Valley of Princes, with the fourth group of souls, and they have to stop as the first day is coming to end, in the dusk and twilight.

Enjoy!

The fourth Canto is in many ways the real beginning of the Climb, and one that gives us a new understanding both of orientation (and re-orientation), and the nature of a major learning process – metaphorically climbing the Mountain. And we’ll meet Belaqua, an old indolent friend of Dante the Writer. The late repentants who are indolent have to wait the same amount of years as they postponed their “Metanoia” and changing their minds.

Enjoy!

The third chapter is a lighter canto, and describes the transition from the Beach to the Mountain across the fields. Main symbolic theme is the role and limitation of Reason, both as the foundation and crucial for the Climb, but also its limitations. This topic will be increasingly clear through the book – until the Crowning moment after the Seven Terraces.

Enjoy!

In this second episdode we’ll meet the Angelic Boatman arriving at the shores of Mount Purgatory, and see the symbolism of both the Boatman  and the role of Cato as the Guardian of the Mountain and Growth.

Overall this is a chapter of beauty, renewal and rebirth. 

Enjoy!

Welcome to this first episode of the Purgatory Series!

We’ll talk about the symbolism of the first chapter but also the  bigger context and framing of the book and the Comedy as a whole. Enjoy!