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OK, friends, we are finally in Paradise, with our faithful guides Beatrice, St. Bernard, and of course, Professor Matthew Rothaus Moser. It turns out that perfect happiness is resting, delighting, and dwelling in the good. How does Dante manage to write 33 more cantos about rest? You should listen to find out, of course!
Sacred and Profane Love Episode 34: Dante's Paradiso by Sacred and Profane Love
Here, in the final canto of The Divine Comedy, Dante rises to his greatest height in a beatific vision of divinity itself, in a flash of insight, difficult to remember, difficult to put into words, but his poetry is up to it, and carries on to the end of this great poem.
Bernard points out to Dante various pre-eminent souls seated in that huge Celestial Rose, and discusses the situation of those infants who have also been saved, and the mystery of how even they are placed in a hierarchy. Then the final moments before, in the next, final canto, Dante will reach the goal of his journey.
More heavenly bliss, but Beatrice shifts away from Dante's side, up to her real place in the great community of heaven, with St Bernard now taking her place for the final steps of this journey.
Is it a geometry lesson as a point enlarges into a circle? Or a sparkling scene in nature? Or a theatre in the round? Or the Celestial Rose, now coming into view for Dante, as Beatrice finishes her explanations, with a fierce attack on the popes.
Angels, rebel angels, a question of time and eternity, wrong-headed lecturers and preachers, and back to the angels at the end of the canto - more instruction from Beatrice.
The indescribably joyfulness of this highest heaven, but also the rage at the corruption on earth, with no spiritual or secular leadership.
An inverted model of the universe and the nine orders of angels, Beatrice talking us through this ninth sphere.
Dante passes the third and final part of his exams, and then has an encounter with none other than Adam himself.
Part 2 of Dante's final exam, on Hope, and then the third examiner arrives, but Dante peers too deeply for something that's not there, and blinds himself before the third part of the exam can even begin.
Beatrice enrols Dante for his final exams, part one, examined by St Peter on the nature of Faith. Our challenge: how to make this question come alive for us today.
Dante adjusts his vision here on the eighth sphere, briefly seeing the Source of Divine Light, and Mary, and all the saved souls in heaven coming down to him. It's hard for him to describe to us, but we understand.
Dante meets St Benedict here on Saturn, the region dedicated to the contemplative life, and then rises even higher, up to his birthsign, Gemini. And from there, he looks back to contemplate just how small, compared to everything else, our Earth actually is.
Now on the sphere of Saturn, a place of auterity, and a love that rises above the personal, perhaps a place of preparation for things higher up, up that golden ladder that features in this place.
Who are these just rulers here on Jupiter, and how does justice connect with humility, and in what way do the "violent bear it away"? All this and more.
Will someone who has never had the chance to learn about salvation but nevertheless lives a completely righteous life - will this person be damned to Hell because there's been no official baptism or profession of faith? Is this justice? That's what this canto sets out to answer, or at least to discuss.
We have our final words and final dance on Mars and then ascend to Jupiter, the home of Justice, with a whole different kind of verbal dance put on for Dante.
More from Cacciaguida, Dante's great-great-grandfather here on the sphere of Mars: the climactic and poignant revelation of Dante's exile from Florence, and his commission not to compromise in retelling the truth of what he has seen on this long journey.
More from Cacciaguida, Dante's great-great-grandfather, here on the sphere of Mars, and more about pride, elevation above one's lower self, and a lot more about the state of Florence.
Dante meets his great-great-grandfather on the sphere of Mars, and hears about what an ideal place Florence used to be. It's a canto full of loving courtesy.
Our final encounter on the sphere of the Sun, as we find out what kind of splendour we'll experience after we have been reunited with our bodies after the world's end. And the ascent to the next sphere, Mars, and the experience there that Dante is unable to express to us.
An almost impossible exercise for our imagination, an account of creation, and a warning about making hasty conclusions - it all fits together for us.
A new group of souls appears, circling around the circle of lights circling around Dante and Beatrice. St Bonaventure speaks out from this new group, praising St Dominic, and criticising his own order of Franciscans, who have fallen away from the standard. The theme here seems to be harmony, which we consider in several different aspects.
Most of the canto is dedicated to celebrating probably the best-loved saint in the calendar: St Francis of Assisi, with the praise coming from a member of the rival order, the Dominicans.
We come to the sphere of the Sun, the place of divine light, where we are introduced to some great thinkers, though the only real back-and-forth here is between Dante and us, the readers.
Still on Venus, we meet some reformed promiscuous souls, and get a divine perspective on the violence and greed that overtakes the world we live in. There's also a lot about interpenetration, the gracious way these souls share their joy.
On the sphere of Venus, we learn the more heavenly way of loving, a reaching out to give joy to the other person, creating a unity in variety. Dante meets an old friend, and has a discussion about why things go wrong in our world.
Still on the planet Mercury, with its characteristic intellectual interplay, we hear about the way the Incarnation restored the relationship between divine and human, and try to explain this with some everyday examples.
A famous Roman Emperor takes up the whole canto to show us the sweep of history and our paradoxical place in it.
How do you make up for a broken promise or vow? We get the answer, and much more here, and then rise up to the next planet, where we get a brilliant greeting.
We have some questions answered, which helpfully shift our perspective on things so we see the world, and the poem, in a rich way.
Dante meets some of the souls in the sphere of the Moon, and learn their story, which is puzzling, if not shocking. There is a lot of turning around here, and we perhaps need our own sense of things turned around too.
Some advice to the readers, followed by a complicated explanation of the spots on the moon, setting out for us the whole arrangement of the heavens, filled with varied individual personalities.
We begin Series 6, as we move into the third part of Dante's Divine Comedy - the Paradiso. The canto opens with an odd kind of invocation, and then Dante takes off for his first stop in the heavens, but is filled with questions about how and why he's rising up so quickly. He's rather disoriented, but we try to help him out as we read.
How it all starts with a "Single Ray of Light" - and to which degree and in which ways this still corresponds with contemporary physics and cosmology. Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thesciencepodcast/message
In this review lecture, we review (a) major characters, (b) quotes, and (c) themes from each sphere of the final canticle of Dante's "The Divine Comedy." --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this episode we have the great pleasure of presenting a first conversation with an expert and scholar in Ancient Philosophy, Dr. Dan Sheffler at Georgetown College in Kentucky! The main topics are St. Gregory's "The Life of Moses" and Dante's "Paradiso", and the concept of Spiritual and Intellectual Ascent. We also discuss various elements of the philosophies of Philo, Plato, symbolism as a language and portal to the spiritual, and further interpretations of the old Biblical Stories. For more information on Dr. Sheffler visit here: http://dansheffler.com Thanks for listening, and enjoy! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this final lecture, we consider (1) the relationship between human nature and divine nature, (2) the image of the trinity and the similarities and differences between the circles, and (3) what the ultimate purpose and meaning of Dante's work and the life of a human really is. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this penultimate lecture on Dante's "Paradiso", we discuss (a) Dante's entrance into the Empyrean (the mind of God), (b) Dante's drinking from a river of light (with his eyes), and (c) the disappearance of Beatrice in preparation for Dante's final revelation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we consider (1) the path of Ulysses, and how much farther Dante has come, and how much higher his perspective is now than it was on earth; (2) the choirs of angels and how they relate to the spheres of heaven, and how the spheres of heaven which appear slowest are actually fastest and brightest and closest to the source (God), and (c) we conclude by considering the (1) creation of the world (why it was created), (2) how long it took Lucifer to fall, and (3) how act (form) and potentiality (matter) were first intertwined together. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we consider (a) the four questions Dante puts to Adam, the first man, (b) the connections between Dante's time in heaven (6-7 hours) and Adam's time in Earthly Paradise (6-7) hours and how the language of man and man himself is like "leaves on a tree" ever changing (falling); and (c) the reasons of Peter's anger against the church (1) the misuse of the papal seat, and (2) divisiveness. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we observe (a) Dante's definition of "faith" and his defense of his belief in the words of the Old and New Testaments, (b) Dante's definition of "hope" and St. James' famous distinction between faith and acts, and (c) we witness Dante go blind and then speak to St. John about what love and sacrifice truly are. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we discuss (1) the nature of the garden and food similes and metaphors as we near the top of heaven, (2) the examinations on faith, hope, and love Dante will now endure, and (3) the character and inconsistency of Peter, the first pope. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we review (a) the contemplatives of Saturn, including Peter Damian and St. Benedict; (b) we consider the nature and fate of all human institutions according Dante/St. Benedict (Rome, Florence, the Benedictine Order, the Franciscans, the Dominicans, etc...); and (c) we move forward to the Fixed Stars where we will meet St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and Adam, the first man (in Canto 26). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we (1) consider the "Golden Ladder" of contemplation, (2) come to understand the "ineffability" of predestination in relation to free-will, and (3) learn that (perhaps ironically today) St. Benedict fled the city and its corruption for the contemplative life. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we discuss (a) can humans understand divine justice? (b) What about people who existed before Christianity or outside its physical range (those born along the Indus)? And (c) how can Trajan and Ripheus (noble pagans) be in heaven, but not Virgil? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we (1) enter Jupiter and observe its blush recede to objective paleness; (2) we learn about the just rulers who occupy Jupiter and the eagle that symbolizes and vocalizes their collective will, and (3) we consider whether divine justice is effable or ineffable for Dante. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we consider (a) Cacciaguida's foretelling of Dante's bitter future, (b) the philosophy and psychology of seeing good times in the future (heaven/promised land) or the past (Eden/Ogygia/Golden Age), and (c) we concluded with a consideration of how to turn catastrophe to one's immortal advantage. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, I (a) give an overview of Dante's sphere of Mars, (b) introduce the symbol of the cross, and (c) introduce Cacciaguida and illuminate the connections between him and Anchises from Virgil's Aeneid. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we (a) review the shared perspective of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure, (b) outline how Solomon can be above all natures in perfection, if even perfectly made men (Adam and Christ) be included in that category, and (c) we speculate on the notion of resurrection in the context of Virgil's "Aeneid" Bk. VI (6). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we (a) introduce the basic theme (shared perspective) and speakers (St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure) of the sphere, (b) speak to Dante's increasing clarity of sight/judgment, and (c) consider why these teachers extol the virtues of the lives of others and not their own. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we first (a) recapitulate the beginning of Dante's argument on how a "sweet seed [could] go bitter," and a brief exposition of Aristotle's cosmology; (b) we then consider what the "various" effects and causes of man are, and (c) consider thus the mechanism by which siblings differ from each other and their parents, and why some people feel ill-suited to this world. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, I introduce (a) Venus and the Venusians, those whose love transcended their lust; (b) we consider the connection between the "obscured" or "darkened" first three spheres of Heaven, and (c) we learn Aristotle's "trickle-down Theo-nomics" theory of how the primal good is transmitted through the heavens and down to earth. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we lay out (a) Dante's reasoning behind the Incarnation, (b) Dante's argument for why humans ought to be charitable towards each other (as an ultimate ideal), and (c) how the first three spheres of Paradise emphasize the theme that "one's initial sensory perceptions are often wrong"/ "Nothing is as it seems [at first]". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, we meet (a) Justinian and Romieu de Villenueve, (b) consider the concepts of just punishment and just reward, and (c) provide Beatrice/Dante's account for why (1) God became mortal, and (2) why God forgave rather than punished man for his death. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this lecture, I layout and give Beatrice's response to the following major questions from the Sphere of the Moon: 1)If heaven is perfect, and above the earth, it cannot be made of matter, but how do I, Dante, move in heaven if I have a body which is made of matter? (1-97-99) 2)Why does the moon appear to have dark spots if it is in heaven, and heaven is perfect? (2.49-51) 3)How do humans take what they see with their senses and then understand what they see with their intellects? (4.43-61) 4)What makes an oath unbreakable? What are the parts of an oath, and under what conditions may an oath be broken? (5.13-15) 5)If a vow is broken by the force of another, why would I be blamed for breaking the vow? (4.19-21) 6) Bonus: Why do souls not long for a higher place in paradise? (3.64-66) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
In this introductory lecture to Dante's "Paradiso", we consider (a) Dante's geocentric conception of the universe, (b) the difference between the (1) absolute will and (2) contingent will, and (c) consider the value of oaths and promises amongst the oath-breakers. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/alexander-schmid9/support
Kenneth Covinginton examines the third part, the Paradiso, of Dante's great Divine Comedy.
Dr. Arnn and Dr. Smith join Hugh Hewitt to discuss Dante's Paradiso