Over the past few years I’ve been asked on a couple of occasions to give introductory lectures to Dante’s Comedy. Since everyone seems to be reading Dante this Lent, I thought I would make available, for a wider audience, some (lightly) edited videos I’ve made. I first gave these lectures for my friends at Exodus 90, and later I gave them for the smiling monks at Clear Creek Abbey on a warm September weekend in 2024.
In this, the first lecture— “How Dante Became a Medieval Prophet” (1/4)—I talk about the spiritual world of Dante and the poet’s metamorphosis from love lyric poet to the writer of his epic spiritual journey, the Comedy.
In “If I make my bed in Sheol: The Tragedy of Hell and the Center of the Heart” (2/4), I describe the crushing reality at the center of Dante’s hell.
In “Purgatorio: In Search of a Clean Heart” (3/4), I describe the quest for puritas cordis (purity of heart) in the second part of Dante’s trilogy.
And, in “Paradiso: Easter Glory” (4/4) (to be posted on Easter Monday!), I describe why we should all be in love with the third part of Dante’s trilogy, even if we modern readers rarely get to it.
In the first lecture above, I make reference to this breathtaking image on the ceiling of Il Gesu’ in Rome:
