Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321) Dante, who died on this day in 1321, is probably the greatest Catholic poet ever. “The Divine Comedy” is a massive poem narrating a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise – it is simultaneously a vision, an imaginative poem, a spiritual journey, a commentary on life and politics, a deep work of psychology, and a synthesis of the then still revolutionary theology of St Thomas Aquinas. Too many people think of “grim Dante” of the Inferno (Hell), the inventor of grotesque punishments, and that is all they know of and read. Fools! The horrors of Hell are the horrors of sin itself, sin stripped of the false romanticism we give it. But if you must read just one book, read the Purgatorio (Purgatory), where you see ordinary, fallible men and women – people like you and me – no longer able to sin, or wanting to, but still bearing the stain and being purged of it. Suffering there is, but there is also joy. Incidentally, Dante was the first Italian to use a language other than Latin for serious work, and he is, more or less, the creator of Italian as a literary language.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 23:25:51 +0000
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