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 9-6 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.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-4 The Inferno

The 'eleventh hour' is the temporal dimension that is appropriate to religious life, not the present, the past or the future. It is the 'eleventh hour' that is worthy of our religious longing and hope.

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-3 The Inferno

In the early nineteenth century G. W. F. Hegel introduced the 'divinization' of history and an intellectual concern to control or know the future. This is contrasted with Martin Buber's understanding of 'magic' - the attempt to have a religious life without having a relationship to God. Truth cannot be known, only encountered. William Stafford's poem "Glances".

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-2 The Inferno

The future is the only transcendental value for men without a god

Albert Camus

Reflections on Dante's Divine Comedy - Pt 9-1 The Inferno

With this post we begin posting episodic excerpts from Gil Bailie's archival materials again. For the next long while these will be from Gil's 1984 24 cassette tape series on Dante's Divine Comedy which are being transfered into digital format. If you are interested in obtaining the complete MP3s finished so far please visit our webstore by following this link.

Those visitors who have shared contact information with us over the past years will likely in the days before Thanksgiving receive our annual Fall Appeal. We try to limit our fundraising appeals to once a year, and ask that you look kindly on our request for support for the coming year. If you are a new visitor to our weblog and want to learn more about our work please follow this link to our website.

In early 2015 Gil Bailie hopes to have the manuscript he has been working on lo these past four years in the hands of a prospective publisher. There will no doubt still be much work to be done. But when that happens we expect to see Gil back on the road. He has had to pass on numerous offers of speaking opportunities over the past few years in order to keep his focus on the manuscript. Next year that will change. If a publisher finds this manuscript worthy of publication we expect there will be some promotional trips involved following its debut. We will keep those interested in our work appraised of these events.

Thanksgiving blessings to all!