Paradiso, Canto 15 with Dr. Melissa Schubert

[@cheryltouryan3323]

The Pardiso Cantos are getting more and more obscure! Thank you for clarifying them to us, the uninitiated...Touryan

[@auslighten]

Obscure or fanciful?

[@frankcahill747]

A very erudite presentation. Thank you Dr. Schubert.

[@patcamerino5456]

Canto 15: Dante and Beatrice have passed through the first four Paradisial spheres where they have seen the illuminations for souls who, although now completely forgiven, when living, lacked the requisite virtues: Moon (Fortitude or Constancy); Mercury (Justice), Venus (Temperateness) and Sol (Prudence or Knowledge and Understanding.) They are now in Mars, where they encounter the radiance of souls who, while exemplifying Fortitude or Courage during their lifetimes, became martyrs for their beliefs. The major soul Dante meets is that of Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather, who first appears as a shooting star transversing the cross of Christ from its right arm to its foot. Cacciaguida has been entwined with the Trinity so long that it takes him a few moments to recall how to speak with a human. He expresses his great pleasure that Dante has been gifted, as had St Paul, in seeing heaven while still alive. Dante is so overwhelmed that his only reply can be, “thank you!” Cacciaguida speaks to Dante about the good old days of Florence, when life was simple, and greed was held in abeyance. He had joined Emperor Conrad in a Crusade to the Holy Land, where he suffered martyrdom. Once again, Dante, attributes this to the corruption of the Church leaders.

[@allegrasmick4719]

Thank you. Inspiration to begin my day. You help me to understand Dante who helps me to orient myself. The connection between earthly loves and heavenly loves I’d especially wonderful.

[@chriswilson3180]

Terrific, I can hear the emotion and conviction in your voice as you explain this canto. Thanks.

[@johndunham9236]

Thank you, Dr. Schubert! This felt like a familiar Canto, in its family and Florentine flavor, but it also felt like the perfection of all those on similar themes that came before it. Before martial virtue, Dante crafts a touching ideal of his family and civic history. He looks to the past not in nostalgia but as a source of life and perspective to help him make sense of his own, darker time. Sound familiar? Even a great man from the best time of Florence knows that those terrestrial goods were not the ultimate end. Remember the handsome and serene city. Remember the culture. Remember the women. Remember the love. Thank you!

[@elizabethbrink3761]

Thank you so much for your guidance with this canto, Dr. Schubert!

[@cewilliams3674]

This is excellent. Marvelous comments. Thank you.

[@treborketorm]

Thank you Dr. Schubert for a profound and thoughtful presentation. Human history consists of the individual will and perspectives, imagination, intellect, emotions that are tethered to the life and times of where and when each person is born and raised. Dante envisioned what is now known as the "Umwelt," the environmental factors, collectively, that are capable of affecting the behavior of an individual. We are a part of the terrestrial whole that is limited in time and space and we tend to experience thoughts and feelings as something separated from others...a kind of delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a mental of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. To love our neighbor as ourselves requires sympathy, empathy, and compassion, and compassion leads to passion and passion requires action. Without this love or “charity” we wallow in our own incontinence. We are our brother’s keeper and he is ours.

[@nephthyswolfe7835]

Thank you!

[@tgold3311]

Thank you for sharing the beautiful lesson of this Canto. I would recommend to the professor to consider the audience you are speaking to in your choice of words. Using words that are not common in use should either be replaced or used with an accompanying definition so that the hearer is better educated. Otherwise the reading of classic literature like Dante's will be limited to those with English degrees.