Using a facing-page translation, we will deal with the climax of Dante’s Divine Comedy. While Inferno depicts sin and evil, and Purgatorio portrays redemption, Paradiso illustrates the possibility of transcendence. Not only does a blessed soul understand the transcendent universe, but that person also transcends her or his fallen human nature. In this seminar we will cover the numerous historical personages and references in the work, and discuss its cosmological and theological basis. Dante’s Paradiso is the culmination of the Comedy, illustrating the perfect nature of the universe, as driven by “the love that moves the sun and other stars.”
