Hunger, Light, Love, And The Theology Of Abundance: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, Lines 58 - 84
Description
Dante the pilgrim has gotten one answer out of Virgil about the nature of abundance and scarcity in terms of heavenly good . . . but that answer was not apparently enough. So he goes back for more.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this continuation of Virgil's lesson between the second and third terraces of Purgatory proper. As we leave the envious behind, Virgil offers us a lesson in the unending and multiplying faculty of love.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:41] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 58 - 84. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[04:28] The food and agrarian imagery in the passage: desire and its satisfaction.
[08:18] The light imagery in this passage: links back to the opening of Canto XV, as well as to Aquinas' SUMMA and Dante's own CONVIVIO.
[14:58] Profit: the motive or idea of multiplicity has been in Canto XV all along.
[16:31] Virgil: a character of Dante the poet's mouthpiece?
[20:38] The plot returns (sort of) by a redefinition of the problem of pain.
[24:28] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 58 - 84.
We've come to the middle of PURGATORIO . . . and indeed the middle of COMEDY as a whole. Let's take a breather and review where we've been in Purgatory since our very slow approach sometimes (or often?) causes us to privilege the trees over the forest.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk you...
Published 11/20/24
We come to the end of Virgil's (first) discourse on love, as well as the end of the central canto of PURGATORIO.
But it's a strange end since Virgil admits to what he doesn't know. Having been so certain about how human behavior operates, he concludes by telling Dante the pilgrim he's on his own...
Published 11/17/24