Category Archives: Paradiso

Paradiso

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Richard Emerson

We’ve now started a new reading of Paradiso in Italian, and we are building on the foundations from a new understanding of Eden. How we interpret the scenes, and what emerges out of the passages, will largely rely on an … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged | 2 Comments

Benvenuto da Imola – and Anagogical Readings

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Richard Emerson

After several years of searching for anagogical interpretations of specific passages in Dante’s Divine Comedy in all of the Anglo-American scholarship, and in the more recent Italian scholarship (the last few centuries), we have finally found an illuminating source: Benvenuto … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

New Life to the Relationship

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Richard Emerson

After the restoration of the soul and the first 65 cantos of the Comedy, one can take a long break and simply enjoy the fruits of the readings. The first main step is completed. And one’s life, apprehension, perception, experience, … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Rings of Angelic Beings

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Richard Emerson

Here’s the moment when the Pilgrim looks at the source of the Divine in the Deep of Motion, and sees the nine rings of Angelic Beings: there came showers of light from all the fiery rings, like molten iron in … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reflections on Paradiso

Posted on July 17, 2021 by Richard Emerson

Reading the Paradiso for the third, and now fourth time, has been a fully different experience from the first journey through the spheres up to the Empyrean. The narrative seems even less structured than in the other two books, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dante’s thoughts of the New Papacy around 1300

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Richard Emerson

Towards the boundary of the material cosmos, and right before entering the Eternal Mind of the Divine, Dante sums up his thoughts about Pope Boniface VIII through the voice of St. Peter – the first Pope: He who on earth … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beauty in Arts, Nature, and the Mystery

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Richard Emerson

Here is the passage where Dante compares beauty in arts or in nature, with the spiritual beauty within oneself, of the Divine Mysteries: And all that art and nature can contrive to lure the eye and thus possess the mind, … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Adam in Paradiso

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Richard Emerson

Here are the words from Adam to the Pilgrim in Paradiso – as to why they were metaphorically expelled from the Garden of Eden: Know now, my son, the tasting of the tree was not itself the cause of such … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Aiming one’s Love

Posted on July 12, 2021 by ancientworld

In the third and final examination, conducted by St. John, the Pilgrim is asked “what is it that your Soul is set upon.” The answer is firstly; the Good. “The Good, that full contentment of this Court, is Alpha and … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Definition of Hope

Posted on July 10, 2021 by Richard Emerson

In the second examination the Pilgrim has to define “Hope”. His answer is: “Hope is sure expectancy of future bliss to be inherited – the holy fruit of the Divine’s own grace and man’s precedent worth.” He then says it … Continue reading →

Posted in Paradiso | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment