Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-14 The Inferno

Canto 25 - Thievery and Aristotle's notion of the entelechy. I suspect one could only find such a juxtapositon here.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-13 The Inferno

Canto 24 continued: Gil Bailie's poem Codicil

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-12 The Inferno

Canto 24 continued: fame leaves a vestige of oneself on earth. The instinct to leave evidence.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-11 The Inferno

Canto 24 - Nearing the pit of Hell Dante is exhausted but Vergil urges him on to achieve fame.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-10 The Inferno

Hypocrisy continued - with reference to Arnold Toynbee and mimesis.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-9 The Inferno

Hypocrites in Hell, continued.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-8 The Inferno

Canto 23 - a change of tone and the hypocrites.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-7 The Inferno

the grafters try to game the system - 'how much can I get away with?'

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-6 The Inferno

The gargoyle cantos 21 & 22: Where the grafters are punished.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-5 The Inferno

End of Canto 20 - final thoughts on the Annunciation. Cantos 21 & 22 - called the gargoyle cantos - bring a change of mood.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-4 The Inferno

The Annunciation and knowing the future - continued

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-3 The Inferno

The Annunciation and knowing the future -

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-2 The Inferno

Fate and Amphiareus (one of the seven against Thebes). The only god you can meet in a predictable universe is a false one.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 10-1 The Inferno

Canto 20 - reflections on Moses and the burning bush. He learns God's name, or does he? Moses encounters one who will not be determined.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-10 The Inferno

While the universe may be viewed as evolving or progressing it is better understood as fundamentally an Incarnating cosmos. Also, while there are may be legitimate and practical concerns for the future, when our focus is on determining or knowing the future we miss our proper orientation to the intersection of time with the timeless.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-9 The Inferno

The intersection of time and timelessness will happen only in the presence of the human mind.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-8 The Inferno

Continuing with TS Eliot's Dry Salvages from The Four Quartets...viewed at a close commentary on Canto XX of The Inferno. Preoccupation with the past and/or future is a sign of small 'h' hope. Whereas in the mystery of timelessness in the midst of each individual person's history is found the virtue of Hope, and the purview of the saint.

The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint—
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,
Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-7 The Inferno

...the future is a faded song, a Royal Rose or a lavender spray Of wistful regret for those who are not yet here to regret, Pressed between yellow leaves of a book that has never been opened. And the way up is the way down, the way forward is the way back.

TS Eliot, Dry Salvages

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-6 The Inferno

As long as we can conjure up little facile reasons for hanging on to the small 'h' hope we would never come into the larger dimension HOPE.

"There is no end but addition, the trailing
Consequence of further days and hours:
While emotion takes to itself the emotionless
Years of living among the breakage
Of what was believed in as the most reliable—
And therefore the fittest for renunciation."

          TS Eliot - The Dry Salvages

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-5 The Inferno

TS Eliot's Dry Salvages (one of the Four Quartets) is a running commentary on Canto 20 of the Inferno. Demolishing hope (with a small h) so that the theological virtue of Hope could come into its proper place.