At
the Catholic Thought Book Club, we’re returning to the Divine Comedy, and reading the last cantica, Paradiso. You’ll be seeing
a number of posts on it in the next couple of months. Here’s the introduction I provided to this
last section.
As
an introduction to Paradiso, let me say up front that this is the least
familiar to me of the three canticles.
While I had read Inferno and Purgatorio several times each (perhaps as
many as four times) I have only read Paradiso one and a half times. Many years ago I read it through, and then a
couple of years ago I got to just about half way. I was going to finish it, but then our book
club selected it as our long term read, and so I started over with Inferno
again and realized I would read Paradisio through when we got to it.
When
we had last left Dante (the character, not the author) at the end of
Purgatorio, he and Beatrice were in earthly paradise and had set their sights
for the stars. Dante had undergone
contrition, confession, and absolution and was ready for the holiness of
heaven. This last cantica is the final
part of Dante the pilgrim’s journey through the world of the dead, now through
the world of those in heaven. So what
can we expect here? In Inferno, the goal
of the journey was to reach through a winding funnel the heart of hell and to
Satan. In Purgatorio the goal was to
climb along the edge of a spiraling mountain and reach Beatrice. In Paradisio the goal is to rise through the
heavenly spheres to reach Empyrean, the heart of heaven, and to God.
Just
as Inferno and Purgatorio are each constructed to have ten major
sections, so too Paradisio contains ten sections. Ten is for Dante the number of perfection,
and likewise the entire Divine Comedy is constructed to have one hundred (ten
times ten) cantos. Each of the
canticas—a cantica or in English canticle, is a major division, Inferno,
Purgatorio, and Paradiso—contains thirty-three cantos, which are subdivisions
to the cantica. That accounts for ninety-nine,
and the hundredth is the introductory canto just before Dante the character
enters Inferno. Perhaps this is
rudimentary for those who have read along, but perhaps there is someone
starting with us in Paradisio. If so, I
urge you to read the introductions I provided to Inferno and Purgatorio. It’s not difficult to start here if you allow
yourself time to understand what has gone on.
The
ten sections of Paradiso consist of seven heavenly bodies (moon, Mercury,
Venus, sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), a section of consisting of an
assemblage of stars, a section called the crystalline sphere from which God
directly moves the universe, and finally Empyrean. If Inferno was a downward slide allegorically
suggesting the ease of sin, and Purgatorio was an upward climb allegorically
suggesting the struggle of penance, then Paradiso is a rising allegorically
suggesting the glory of salvation. There
is no effort in the rising. Think of
Dante and Beatrice, his guide for a good deal of Paradisio, as helium filled
balloons being drawn toward God.
In
formulating the structure and nature of Paradiso, Dante was without doubt
influenced by St. Paul when he talks of his mystical journey in Second
Corinthians:
I must go on boasting.
Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations
from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to
the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not
know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the
body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard
inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast
about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my
weaknesses. (2 Cor 12:1-5)
Without
getting into the exegesis of this passage, we see there are multiple heavens
and that his body or soul (he does not know which) is lifted up to
paradise. And it is unclear to Dante too
whether his journey through the heavens is bodily or not.
The
pilgrims (Dante and Beatrice) do make stops at each of the spheres where they
do meet other souls, but I should make it clear, since many make this
assumption, that the souls do not reside in these spheres. In a way this is a break as an analogs to
Inferno, where those souls reside forever in those circles, and to Purgatorio
where the penitents make their way through the ledges of the mountain. In Paradisio
the souls all reside in Empyrean with God but travel to the spheres to show
Dante the variation of graces bestowed by God to people. Those souls have some characteristic of their
sphere of influence but are not integrated to it. If they were, they would be separated from
God. Indeed, there integration in
Empyrean suggests a beautiful integration into the Body of Christ.
Critics
of Paradiso say that it is the least polished of the three canticas. I have not noticed that. If I have my timeline correct, Dante (the
author) started writing the Commedia
in 1308 and completed first drafts of Inferno and Purgatorio by 1313, writing
them nearly in parallel. He spent the
next four or five years revising the first two canticas and planning
Paradiso. He started Paradisio in 1317
and finished shortly before his death in 1321.
It’s conceivable he would have polished up Paradisio if he had lived
longer just as he did the first two. But
having perfected the style and technique in the first two canticas, which
spanned nearly a decade, he would need less time and effort in putting down the
final third. If it’s not as polished,
it’s pretty darn good.
Some
readers consider Paradiso the least interesting of the three. Perhaps it’s because it deals with
theological issues more directly. There
are less characters, and the pace is slower and more contemplative. Perhaps it’s also because there is less
narrative tension in Paradisio. Inferno
builds narrative tension through the personal dangers facing the pilgrims. Purgatorio builds narrative tension through
the struggle of cleansing sin. Paradisio
seemingly doesn’t have a narrative means to build tension. Its sole tension is built on the anticipation
of seeing God.
If
Paradisio lacks tension, however, the sheer beauty of its imagery and content
makes it the most exquisite. I think of
the three canticas in this way. Inferno
is the most imaginative. Purgatorio is
the most human. Paradiso is the most
sublime. It is here in Paradiso that
all the themes are knitted together and reach closure. What has been left incomplete is completed;
development reaches denouement; intonations arrive to closed cadences. It is good to recall the three overarching
themes of the Divine Comedy: Man must be civilly responsible, man must seek the
fulfillment of his Christian faith, and that the poet should create in an
effort to capture God’s divine beauty. It is Paradiso we find the highest
achievement of civil governance, we find most attainment of holiness, and we
find the Empyrean, the mystical rose that represents perfection of God’s
creation and on which the entire Divine Comedy is meant to represent.
With
that, let’s get to Paradiso.
As
to a reading plan, I don’t want to push myself at five or six cantos per week
as I did while reading Inferno and Purgatorio.
I was more familiar with those and I still fell behind. I looked at the division of the cantos and
found some reasonable breaks. So I
propose the following reading plan of eight weeks.
27
Jan – 2 Feb, Cantos 1 – 5
3
Feb – 9 Feb, Cantos 6 – 9
10
Feb – 16 Feb, Cantos 10 – 14
17
Feb – 23 Feb, Cantos 15 – 18
24
Feb – 2 Mar, Cantos 19 – 22
3
Mar – 9 Mar, Cantos 23 – 27
10
Mar – 16 Mar, Cantos 28 – 30
17
Mar – 23 Mar, Cantos 31 – 33
These
are the discussion weeks, so the read prior is the time allotted to read
them. So you should start reading
now. Some weeks we have five cantos to
read, some four, the last two weeks three cantos each. This should give us a leisurely pace to
digest the poetry. I encourage you to
read and post your comments. If there is
a particular passage that is giving you trouble, please ask and I will do my
best to explain it. As you can tell from
my discussions of Inferno and Purgatorio, I love the Divine Comedy. It’s the greatest work of literature ever
written.
[We're already a week behind that schedule I put together. This is a work I don't want to rush.]
