http://afterlife06.umwblogs.org/2006/12/03/57/ Just another UMW Blogs.org weblog Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:10:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 http://afterlife06.umwblogs.org/2006/12/03/57/#comment-165 Federico Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:51:53 +0000 http://afterlife06.umwblogs.org/2006/12/03/57/#comment-165 Jessica, you are tackling one knotty question, not only of the Commedia, but of Christian theology as a whole. Your discussion is well informed, refers to all the crucial passages in the Commedia, and your reading of these passages is solid. Brava! So what is Dante telling us? That God's ways, although mysterious, do have a rationale, which in turn is even more mysterious. So, when facing God, man is facing what we may call a mystery to the square. Dante in otherworld is laying out a rationale for God's actions based on PROVIDENCE and PREDESTINATION, while quickly making it VERY clear that grasping that rationale is beyond man's capability. So what we do know is that we can’t know. But this is not a cop-out for simpletons; on the contrary it is all meant to place the due emphasis on FAITH, as the anaphoric use of the word “believe” in the passage you quote clearly indicates. “I can see that, since you speak of them, you do believe these things but cannot see how they may be; and thus, though you believe them, they are hidden.” Faith is Dante's only response to the failure of reason to reconcile PROVIDENCE, PREDESTINATION and FREE WILL. Faith as acceptance of the intrinsic limitations of the human mind; and, at the same time, as Saint Augustine said, the only way to attempt to overcome such limitations: "intellige ut credas, crede ut intelligas." Your parallel with the Classical tradition is interesting, but I believe needs a little clarification. There is indeed the will of the gods, which you are referring to in your quote from the Odyssey. We also have seen how much grief Juno’s wrath is causing to Aeneas and his companions. But this aspect of the god's will is not really mysterious at all. On the other hand when you are referring to the tragic world of Oedipus, you are really talking about something that is indeed beyond the realm of the will of the gods: namely DESTINY or FATUM, to use a better word – the mysterious force that moves man to what is usually its inescapable tragic destiny. Although mysterious and removed from human understanding, FATUM is, however, definitely not the means through which an all-mighty, and most importantly saving God mysteriously guides the actions of man to salvaton. In this respect there clearly is a huge difference between the two traditions. Jessica, you are tackling one knotty question, not only of the Commedia, but of Christian theology as a whole. Your discussion is well informed, refers to all the crucial passages in the Commedia, and your reading of these passages is solid. Brava! So what is Dante telling us? That God’s ways, although mysterious, do have a rationale, which in turn is even more mysterious. So, when facing God, man is facing what we may call a mystery to the square. Dante in otherworld is laying out a rationale for God’s actions based on PROVIDENCE and PREDESTINATION, while quickly making it VERY clear that grasping that rationale is beyond man’s capability. So what we do know is that we can’t know. But this is not a cop-out for simpletons; on the contrary it is all meant to place the due emphasis on FAITH, as the anaphoric use of the word “believe” in the passage you quote clearly indicates. “I can see that, since you speak of them, you do believe these things but cannot see how they may be; and thus, though you believe them, they are hidden.” Faith is Dante’s only response to the failure of reason to reconcile PROVIDENCE, PREDESTINATION and FREE WILL. Faith as acceptance of the intrinsic limitations of the human mind; and, at the same time, as Saint Augustine said, the only way to attempt to overcome such limitations: “intellige ut credas, crede ut intelligas.”
Your parallel with the Classical tradition is interesting, but I believe needs a little clarification. There is indeed the will of the gods, which you are referring to in your quote from the Odyssey. We also have seen how much grief Juno’s wrath is causing to Aeneas and his companions. But this aspect of the god’s will is not really mysterious at all. On the other hand when you are referring to the tragic world of Oedipus, you are really talking about something that is indeed beyond the realm of the will of the gods: namely DESTINY or FATUM, to use a better word – the mysterious force that moves man to what is usually its inescapable tragic destiny. Although mysterious and removed from human understanding, FATUM is, however, definitely not the means through which an all-mighty, and most importantly saving God mysteriously guides the actions of man to salvaton. In this respect there clearly is a huge difference between the two traditions.

]]> http://afterlife06.umwblogs.org/2006/12/03/57/#comment-164 Angela Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:31:28 +0000 http://afterlife06.umwblogs.org/2006/12/03/57/#comment-164 Thank you for your very nice comments, Jessica. Why don't you give this post a title? Thank you for your very nice comments, Jessica. Why don’t you give this post a title?

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