Friday, June 17, 2016

Purgatory

For anyone new to the blog, you can view posts below this one to see what we've already studied, namely Inferno. Our study on Purgatory will be on the following evenings in Guadalupe Hall at EWTN.

Thursdays, 7pm
June 30, July 7, 14, 21

Make-up days (or if you just want to see it a 2nd time)
Wednesday July 6, Mondays July 11, 18, 25

The recommended book is Anthony Esolen's translation which is available at the EWTN gift shop, online at EWTN Religious Catalogue, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

Before coming to the first session, try to read Cantos 1-8.

Purgatory: A New Translation by Anthony Esolen

Dr. Esolen is a wonderful instructor and we promise you won't doze off during this study. You can view an excerpt of the first session of Purgatory study here.

For a video explaining why the Pope wants us study The Divine Comedy during this Year of Mercy, watch this from Bishop Robert Barron. (Joseph Pearce would disagree with the Bishop's recommendation of the Mark Musa translation. He told us that notes from a Catholic point of view make all the difference.)

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at EphiphanyStudies@gmail.com.

Mark and Celine McCoy


Friday, June 10, 2016

Chart on the levels of hell

Colin Dononvan, head of theology at EWTN, posted this on Facebook today.


This coming Monday, June 13, will be the last make-up session of Inferno. We will start Purgatory on Thursday, June 30. Looking forward to a place where hope exists and all the souls know that they will eventually enter heaven!

Here's the book you'll want to get if you haven't already got one: Purgatory



Wednesday, June 1, 2016

It gets even better! Joseph Pearce wrote an article on my question

Read it here: Why did Dante's Inferno Have a Real-Life Saint in Hell?

I'm famous! At least anonymously. ;-)

Celine


A reply from Tony Esolen himself!

WOW. Joseph Pearce passed my question (see post below) along to Tony Esolen and I got the following reply:

​Dear Celine,

That's an interesting question, and I'll venture down a couple of avenues to reply.

In Canto 17 (if I remember right) of Paradise, Dante's great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, gives us the practical justification for Dante's naming and praising and blaming people who are prominent in public life.  It's that mankind will only pay attention when the name is famous; and C. S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce, picks up on that in an interesting way, by placing well-known warmongers and troublers of the peace, such as Napoleon and Henry V (so as to balance a Frenchman with an Englishman, I think) in the farthest reaches of the Gray City below.  Virgil had done something similar in the Aeneid.  These are, of course, figures from the past.

Now, what about people who are still alive, such as Boniface VIII?  I think that Dante leaves himself open for criticism there, since he doesn't imply that Boniface has even a chance of saving himself -- he WILL be in Hell, and so will Clement V.  That may be (well, it is) presumptuous, but of course Dante knows that you know that he is writing a poem and NOT pretending to speak for God.  Then the question becomes whether he is committing the sin of detraction.  That depends.  Suppose you are in possession of knowledge that person X has done something gravely evil.  You have a duty to reveal it to the authorities if the deed in question is a crime against the state and the common good (rather than, let us say, an act of adultery which violates the moral law but is not by itself an attack on the public).  You also have a duty to reveal it if the person is a public figure and the crime violates the trust he assumes by his position of authority.  So if you know that Hillary Clinton has traded state favors to foreign nations in exchange for campaign money, you are not committing detraction if you reveal it.  Supposing then that Dante is certain of his information regarding Boniface's collusion with Guido da Montefeltro, it is no sin to reveal it, and it may be sinful to conceal it.

We then should ask why Dante thinks he is so certain about that act of treachery.  Here I can't answer.  No one knows.  If he is not certain about it but is repeating hearsay, or is guessing, then he is guilty of presenting something as certain which is not so.

As for the reputation of Guido da Montefeltro, again our evaluation of the morality of Dante's exposure of the man depends upon a question of fact.  If in fact he did what Dante alleges, since he is dead and thus can suffer no consequences from the loss of his undeserved reputation for holiness, the act is not one of detraction; and it would protect the common people from a mistaken reverence toward someone who did not deserve it.

That's as I see it.  On the general charge of Dante's being judgmental, I think we can say that he reminds us that this life is not a game we play, and if we lose we go home and everything is all right. The stakes are infinite.

I hope that helps,

Tony Esolen


About Dante's use of real people...

I wrote to Professor Joseph Pearce (listed as Executive Producer, I think, on this study) to ask his opinion of Dante's placing people in hell who were known to him and others of his time. I asked if this wasn't a sin of detraction. It was really starting to bother us, especially in regard to Pope Boniface and the Italian-bad-guy-turned-supposedly-holy-Franciscan (forget the name).

Here is his reply (he's British; therefore the British spelling):
Dear Celine, 
Your discomfort with what might be termed Dante's judgmentalism is understandable. It's not for any of us to presume that anyone is in hell, any more than it is for any of us to presume that we're going to heaven. I think it fair, therefore, to question this aspect of Dante's approach. In his defence, I would suggest that he wanted to avoid writing a formal allegory about the deadly sins in the abstract or presenting them as personified abstractions. In putting real people in hell and purgatory, it enlivens his story, bringing it to life literarily. He is, therefore, employing poetic licence. Whether this is sufficient reason for the crime of judgmentalism is, however, questionable. 
On the other hand, Dante is doing nothing wrong in placing popes, priests and religious in hell and purgatory (leaving aside the problem with his naming specific popes, priests, etc.). There have been many bad popes and priests and it is good to embrace this fact. Most popes have not been canonized. We don't know where they are in terms of the afterlife. Good Catholics should not be afraid to admit that there are bad Catholics, including bad priests and popes. I don't think, therefore, that he is committing scandal by putting popes and priests in hell, though he is causing scandal, perhaps, in naming individual popes and priests. 
My final observation is to beseech you to not allow this issue to blind you to the beauty of Dante's engagement with sin (in hell and purgatory), with repentance (in purgatory) and with sanctity (in heaven). It is a majestic work, filled to the brim with Christian insight into man's relationship with God and his neighbor. In short, we shouldn't allow the mote in Dante's eye to become the plank in ours! 
I hope this helps. 
God bless,
Joseph   

I just love that he "beseeches me."  I've never been beseeched in my life. :-)

Celine