This post is a summary of three articles. The first witht the title of, "Happy 750th birthday, Dante," Published at http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/happy-750-birthday-dante/. The second at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/happycatholicbookshelf/2015/05/dantes-750th-birthday-pope-francis-and-some-good-reading/. The third with the title of, "Lessons in Manliness from Dante." It was published at http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/12/07/lessons-in-manliness-from-dante/
John Kleiner says it is impossible to convey how vital Dante is to contemporary Italians. They start early with them in the schools. Excerpts: Either because of or despite pedagogical programs, Italians, to a surprising degree, stick with Dante. Since 2006, The actor Benigni has been staging traditional lectura dantis, a form that goes back to 14th century. A typical lectura opens with a detailed gloss of a particular canto, followed by dramatic reading of it. Benigni's performance in Rome, Florence, Verona, and other cities have been watched by more than a million. Millions more have turned into them on TV. Similar, if stodgier, lectures are delivered all over Italy at societies set up expressly to foster appreciation of the Divine Comedy. In Rome, for example, the Casa di Dante sponsors a lecture dantis every Sunday. It is not unusual for two hundred Romans to attend. For the last nine months, I have been living in Rome, and the experience has helped me to appreciate more of Dante's appeal. Though he may be forced-fed to 7th graders, applauded in the senate, and praised by the Holy See. Dante is, as a writer, unmistakably anti-authoritarian. He looks around and what he see is hypocrisy, incompetence, and corruption. Yes indeed, Dante was a rebel, but you might call him a subversive orthodox. He denounced the institutional order of his time, not because he wanted to replaced them, necessarily, but because he wanted them to reform themselves, and be what they are supposed to be. I hope the book, "How Dante can save your life," is translated into Italian and published there. The book is, in effect, a love letter to Italy's greatest son. I would love to see how the Italians react to this book.
On the eve of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the Holy Father expresses his hope that during this year the figure of Dante and his work will also accompany us on this personal and community path. "Indeed", he remarks, "the comedy may be read as a great itinerary, or rather as a true pilgrimage, both personal and interior, and communal, ecclesial, social and historical. It represents the paradigm of every authentic journey in which humanity is called upon to leave what Dante defines as 'the threshing-floor that makes us so ferious' to attain a new condition, marked by harmony, peace and happiness. And this is the horizon of every true humanism. Dante is, therefore, a prophet of hope, herald of the possibility of redemption, of liberation, of the transformation of every man and woman, of all humanity. He continues to invite us to rediscover the lost or obscured meaning of our human path and to hope to see again the shining horizon on which there shines in all its fulness the dignity of the human person.
Auguste Rodin's famous sculpture, 'The Thinker', is probably the single most well-known depiction of the poet Dante. Originally entitled 'The Poet' itself, the statue has since become as much of an icon of the strength of the human intellect as the man who first inspired it. Crouched in life as in Rodin's bronze over some of the greatest problems life has to offer, Dante remains one of history´s foremost thinkers, a visionary who places man at the center of his own epic journey between good and evil. A poetic journey through the flames of hell, purgatory and heaven, the Divine Comedy Takes place on a truly massive scale. It has resonated with each passing generation for the last seven hundred years, never ceasing to inspire readers of every walk of life with its immortal themes of sin, suffering and redemption. Along with its author, the Divine Comedy has long been a touchstone of the Western intellectual tradition, ensuring an enduring legacy for those who would seek to learn from the life and work of "the central man of all the world." About two hundred years before Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo etched into tradition the archetype of the multi-talented Florentine, Dante had already taken the stage as a kind of "pre-Renaissance man". Dante maintained an enormous appetite for learning throughout his life. The arts of philosophy, linguistics, music, painting, politics and sciences were all pursuit he engaged with the same discipline and intensity, completely immersing himself in a chosen subject for its own sake. Diverse though they were, much of Dante's success lay in his ability to incorporate his many interests into the service of his larger work. The Divine Comedy is in many ways the first poem of its kind, an epic written not in classical Greek ot Latin, but the vernacular of the common people. To achieve this, Dante essentially standardized the language we know now as Italian, applying his abilities as a linguist to synthesize the varying dialects that stretched across medieval Italy into a single, cohesive whole. Breadth of study is no hindrance to a mind that can harness its resources towards a singular goal, bringing to bear the weight of one's discipline and experience on the subject at hand. To borrow a line from Mark Twain, Dante may have studied much, scholarly work was an essential element to his intellectual formation, but he was far from letting it be the only one. Not content with simply playing the part of the studious observer, Dante approached life with the same vigor he applied to his studies. During his time in exile, Dante traveled extensively, often attending meetings trying to restore peace between the political factions. But it was far from a bed of roses. Dante's intensity as an intellectual was likely the result of the fact that he experienced much of the darker side of life. By the time he began the Divine Comedy Dante was a man whom life had chewed up and spat back out. Hardened by war, conflict, betrayal, and the burden of exile, Dante had seen firsthand the coarseness of the world, and it let an indelible mark on him and his work. Moral courage can take different forms. At times, it may require a man to defend the principles he lives by, or even to do the right thing regardless of the consequences. At others, it could mean something a little more basic. Justice was much more than a nice idea in Dante's mind. It was real, the standard of a higher moral order that bound the actions of all men. Right and wrong were not just arbitrary designations, but degrees of talking about the inherent value of human behavior. His life in politics and exile had shown the face of corruption and treachery, and knew that the perpetrators of both and many more ills rarely received any punishment for their deeds. But that did not mean they should not be held accountable for what they did. The standard that evil is to be punished and good rewarded is written into the very fabric of the Divine Comedy, and it is a standard Dante uses to measure the deeds of all men, even his own. Moral judgments require courage, beacause in so judging, a man must hold himself and his own actions to the very same standard. The vision that allows one to see evil for what it really is also illuminates his own rights and wrongs.
