Our group meets every other week, but our progress in Paradiso has slowed. The cantos of the theological virtues might seem simpler than ...

Paradiso 25 begins se mai . . .  -- if ever . . . - the strange foolishness of the phenomenon is all right there. Does one "need...

Right at the beginning of  On The Trinity   Augustine sets forth a theory of the mode of the Bible. It is made for little people, even chi...

After the leap of  Paradiso 23,  Dante face a quiz. The one asking the questions is none other than Peter -- the first man to put faith in...

“Tu se' sì presso a l'ultima salute,” cominciò Bëatrice, “che tu dei aver le luci tue chiare e acute;  e però, prima che tu più ...

If Paradiso 22 is the stark, solitary realm of thunder and sublimity, canto 23 is another realm altogether. It is necessary to appreciate ...

The stunning figure of the bird that opens Paradiso 23 speaks of ardent expectation - of light, which will enable this mother to see the ...

Cantos 21-22 of Dante's Paradiso are in some ways rather forgettable. Not much happens, nor is there any especially heightened poetic...

Apropos of the crows ( pole ) that appear in Saturn, Paradiso. 21: 34-39: In Ancient Greece and Rome, several myths about crows and jac...

The appearance of the gaggle of  pole  -- jackdaws, or grey crows ( cornacchie grige ) -- in  Paradiso 21  is a strangely unsolemn moment ...

"The whole story of Ripheus is nothing less than outrageous," says Robert Hollander, with complete justification.  With the in...