Dante in the Digital Inferno
T.S. Eliot famously said that “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third.” If people know Dante, it’s probably related to his poem…
The Other Dante
Dante is generally known as the poet of Christendom for his monumental epic The Divine Comedy. If people are aware of additional writings from Dante, it is…
Taking William James Seriously
This essay was presented to the Eric Voegelin Society on 26 September, 2022. The Hidden God has chosen to speak. Or, to put it more abstractly,…
The Scientific Reconstruction of Dante
Scholarship is at times not unlike the stock market. - Teodolinda Barolini Teodolinda Barolini’s Dante’s Multitudes is a must-read for any student of literary criticism who…
Dante’s Global Vision: Seeing and Being Seen in the “Divine Comedy”
“The things of friends are common.” —Greek proverb (quoted by Socrates in the Phaedrus) It is a pleasure to be with you today, to visit Belmont University…
The Bankruptcy of Evolutionism
Evolutionism is a “scientific theory”. By that we usually mean that it is a doctrine that abstracts “scientifically” data, or strictly quantifiable facts, without any concern (or…
Dante’s Transformed Love: Musings on the Poet’s Love for Beatrice
It is well-known that Dante is one of the greatest poets in Western civilization. His magnum opus, The Divine Comedy, is considered one of the crowning achievements…
From Florence and Back Again: Alessandro Barbero’s “Dante: A Life”
Alessandro Barbero. Dante: A Life. Translated by Allan Cameron. New York: Pegasus Books, 2022. Dante Alighieri is the most famous Italian of all time. He is…
Symbols in Painting
“The second fabling-talk [parlare], which corresponds to the Age of Heroes, the Egyptians indicated to have been fabled [parlato] through symbols; to which are to be retraced…
Preface to an Augustinian History of the United States (Introduced by a Reading of Dante)
In the first Canto of his Inferno, having projected himself into a dream of his own making, Dante is confronted with a she-wolf (lupa), ultimate incarnation of…
Following the Gaze: Beatrice’s Eyes and Beauty in The Divine Comedy
Introduction In the Convivio, Dante writes about his admiration for a Florentine girl named Beatrice. Here Dante reveals that he first looked at Beatrice when he was…
The Wonder of “The Comedy”: How to Read Dante
Although the Comedy is a poem of impeccable order, the poet is careful to make sure that our first impression is not of the poem’s architecture but…