Divine simplicity

“Thus, if the present world has gone astray, in you is the cause, in you let it be sought, and now I will be a true spy of it for you.” (Purg 16.82-85) For this canto, it is important to keep in mind that Dante is not just in the middle of his journey through Purgatory, but also the entire afterlife. Purgatorio 16 is the 50th canto of all the comedy and takes place in the third terrace, which is for wrathfulness. Here Dante encounters Marco from Lombardy, who is suspected to have been a…

Purgatorio, Canto II The second canto in “Purgatorio”, even more so than the first, is an explanation of how, and in what state, new souls arrive in Purgatory. The canto begins with Dante explaining that he and Vigil are still on the beach near the ocean. From the beach Dante looks out over the water and notices some sort of bright light, but he can not immediately determine what it es. The light seems to be moving towards Virgil and Dante at an incredible speed. At first, it seems that Virgil…

DANTE Human suffering is always a hard subject to describe or experience in life or death. While reading Dante Alighieri poem called “Inferno” it describes the cycles of life and death. The fascinating part of the story is the detail description of hell, and the suffering the souls experience for eternity (Davis, Harrison, Johnson, Smith and Crawford, 2004). The question to answer is “Comment on the view of human suffering. How is it different from the Greek?” Although, Greek stories describe…

Just as the physical world around us changes with time the morals and ethics of the general populace also changes, albiet gradually. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, written almost 700 years ago, was an important work as it explored the morals and ethics of society in his work, something that was just as uncommmon then as it is now. We know that the physical has changed, but just how much has the metaphysical changed? It is safe to say that the morals and ethics in our society has changed almost…

I agree with Marilyn McCord Adams’ assertion that Hell is a bigger problem than evil. For the purposes of this essay, “Hell” will refer to the fire and brimstone or “Traditional Hell” (Adams, p. 276). Adams’ position will be elaborated upon by first discussing the non-fatalistic aspects of the problem of evil. Next, her position will be strengthened by inspecting Richard Swinburne’s theodicies. Lastly, an examination of Adams’ discussion on human agency will support her view that Hell is a…

One by one, three damned souls, Garcin, Estelle, and Inez, find themselves escorted to hell by a courteous, yet mysterious valet. However, Hell is not the lake of fire filled with torture devices they all believed it to be; rather, it is a neatly furnished drawing room, built in the style of the second French empire. Upon the valet’s departure, the three souls are unwilling to state the reason for their damnation, Garcin claims he was killed for being a pacifist in a time of war and unrest.…

In the story of A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, several underlying motifs sometimes make up an almost subliminal, sometimes very obvious message of music, flight, and sin. These motifs are what I believe really make this story hard hitting and relatable for some of us. Music is apparent in how Stephen turns things into little songs like at the very beginning when Dante is threatening him. He repeats it in a quick cute little tune. He also sang when he was dancing with his mother and…

During the time that Dante wrote The Divine Comedy, the Catholic Church was very corrupt led by popes that were more interested in making monetary gains rather than being spiritual leaders. One purpose of The Divine Comedy was to express disgust with the Church of the time and to suggest what the reformed Church should look like. One way Dante demonstrates that he intended to present a picture of the ideal Church is by making his final guide Saint Bernard, a “critic of the institutional church…

Dante Alighieri (Dante) was born in May 1265. His family had involvement in the Florentine politics. Due to his family’s political duties, Dante was able to meet and befriend many aristocrats such as Guido Cavalcanti, who is later found in Dante’s Inferno. Dante married into the Donati family, yet his true love was a woman named Bice, although he called her Beatrice. Bice, to most scholars, was the daughter of Folco Portinari, a wealthy banker at the time, and later the wife of another banker,…

Inferno by Dan Brown was published on May 14, 2013. Inferno is a literary thriller. The basic plot of the novel revolves around Zobrist, an evil genius, and his horrifying plot to drastically reduce the world’s population in order to balance the environment and centers around one of world’s most mysterious literary masterpieces, Dante’s Inferno. The story starts in Florence where a hospitalized Harvard professor Robert Langdon is awoken with a head wound that leaves him unable to recall how or…