At rare moments in a cultural tradition, great works are created which sum up all the strands of thought and imagination that have gone into the making of that tradition. Such a unifying work is usually the work of a poetic genius. In the case of Western Christendom, that moment comes in the early part of the 14th century; the work is The Divine Comedy, and the poet is Dante Alighieri. (Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology, volume 4 of The Great Ideas Program, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961, page 109)
Thus Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain introduce their guide to Dante’s The Divine Comedy, which I’ve now reached in my rereading of selections from Great Books of the Western World guided by The Great Ideas Program. They conclude their introduction to The Divine Comedy with this claim regarding it, “The result is both a literary masterpiece and an unforgettable view of man’s spiritual nature and destiny” (Adler and Wolff, page 110).
Adler and Wolff go on to: (I) consider the purpose and subject of The Divine Comedy; (II) survey its first two sections, “Hell” and “Purgatory;” (III) introduce the assigned reading, “Paradise;” (IV) identify and explain the significance of the figures that Dante meets in his ascent through Paradise; and (V) discuss three questions which they ask on Dante and The Divine Comedy. Here I’ll sketch the life of Dante, note what Adler and Wolff say about the purpose and subject of The Divine Comedy, and pose the three questions asked by Adler and Wolff.
Dante
Dante was born in Florence, Italy, in 1265. He received a rich education in classical and religious subjects. His idealized love for a beautiful girl, Beatrice Portinari, provided much inspiration for his writings. However, although grief-stricken by her early death, shortly afterwards he married Gemma Donati and they had at least three children.
Dante was active in the political and military life of Florence. He became involved in a political dispute between two groups, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. A group within the Guelphs that was hostile to Dante gained control of Florence about 1300 and banished Dante. He spent the last few years of his exile in Ravenna, where he died in 1321.
Dante began working on The Divine Comedy in about 1308 and completed it in 1321. It was his masterpiece, but his other works also “hold an important place in the history of Italian literature and make their essential contribution to the formation of a literary awareness and tradition, establishing new literary forms and new aims of thought” (The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974, volume 5, page 481).
The Purpose and Subject of The Divine Comedy
The original title of the work was The Comedy of Dante Alighieri, with “comedy” referring to its happy ending at the throne of God. “Divine” was added in the 16th century, expressing admiration for its high quality as well as indicating its sacred theme. Dante’s aim was to affect human character and action. In a letter to his patron he wrote: “The subject of the whole work, taken merely in its literal sense, is the state of souls after death, considered simply as a fact. But if the work is understood in its allegorical intention, the subject of it is man, according as, by his deserts and demerits in the use of his free will, he is justly open to rewards and punishments.” (Adler and Wolff, page 111)
Questions asked by Adler and Wolff:
1. Are we to take Dante’s story as an imaginative fiction or as an allegory of religious truth?
2. Who was Beatrice? What does she represent in the poem?
3. What are Dante’s theological views?
Bob's Corner 