It's...personal
According to the "Theology of the Comedy" essay, there are two "types" of Dante held in tension with each other. What are they?
Dante as theologian and poet
Describe the centrality of embodiment
Temporary disembodiment between death and resurrection, but there will ultimately be unity between mind and soul at resurrection
Primacy of love
love first and foremost; the idea of rightly ordered love
Singing is a sign of:
redemption, salvation, and community
What is the Virgilian ladder?
Pastoral, georgics, epic poetry (moving from poetic apprenticeship to mastery)
According to the "Theology of the Comedy" article, how does personalism of the poem appear?
Theological views are explored in the context of human encounters and conversations (accomodation of Earthliness)
Doctrine of creation
Matter is created by God and is therefore good
Purgatorio is all about restoring:
a will damaged at the Fall so that instead of loving wrongly we learn how to love rightly
Who is the "secret Christian" that Dante Christianizes even though he's a pagan poet? Why?
Statius because Virgil (poetic hero) directed him to God; Virgil seems to prophesize the birth of Christ (Messian eclogue #4)
Provide an example of poetic meditation
Virgil and Statius discuss the art of poetry in Canto 22 of Purgatorio
Dialogic nature of learning in universities is translated into:
the back and forth of Dante's poetics
Doctrine of incarnation
Christ comes down and assumes human bodily form
What is the highest expression of human will?
Love! Sin impairs freedom of the will and distables its ability to make proper choices; held in tension with divine grace or predestination in Dante's writing
Describe Dante and Virgil's encounter with the Tree of Life
Statius tells them not to touch it and make the same error as Adam and Eve (God's prohibition of the Tree of Life to Adam and Eve) or refers to the result of original sin and humankind's loss of eternal life
Statius's story is a ___
conversion narrative, but nobody knows it but himself; didn't love God appropriately and had to spend 400 years in Purgatory
Describe the subtlety of Dante's moral division
Movement from judgment of action and contrapasso TO judgment of thought and disposition (not how you act but how you think and feel about certain kinds of things)
Doctrine of resurrection
body is rejoined to the soul at the end of time (body is essential to the human identity)
Dante emphasizes the ___ and ___ communal dimension of human existence
social; communal; no one is alone in Hell, Purgatory, or Paradise (esp. Purgatory) there is always some kind of community; emphasis of the wearing away of self love and establishment of the fellowship of souls; everybody is happy for one another (Statius ascending to Paradise and everyone sings song happily)
How did Forese end up moving through Purgatory?
At the end of his life he moved toward redemption and the sacrifice of Christ, allowing Donati to move quickly towards the gates of Purgatory; Forese's wife prayed for him so he was able to get here quicker
What is the contrapasso for the terrace of the gluttonous? Who is the main character in this canto?
Starvation; *Forese Donati* - Dante's friend from Florence
Human beings are psychosomatic. This means they are:
composed of body and soul
Sacramental theology
communion at mass (material aspect of Christianity)
Three things as the essense of human existence:
Communion, fellowship, and community
Other than the Tree of Life, there is another tree that appears in Purgatory. What does it represent?
the need to avoid humanity's original sin
Who discusses Dante's new poetic style and what is it?
Buonagenta; differentiates their two poetic styles and how Dante is focused on LOVE, is scriba dae, and has high-level Christian poetry that others can't imitate