![]() The spiritual path does not emerge from an ecstatic vision, but from fear, sorrow and pain. For Dante, the earthly paradise marks the beginning of human history as we know it, man having lost direct contact with God and, since then, living in “pena e desio” (Purg XXXIII 61): pain in the absence of the origin of happiness, and desire for a renewed encounter with what has been lost. Dante points out precisely how fear and desire are the very first movements of the soul in the relationship between man and God in the earthly paradise. When Dante, along with his spiritual masters, speaks about the primacy of feeling in the spiritual path he refers to specific movements of the soul: fear and desire. Dante himself reminds the reader that, in the light of grace, the human senses will finally be able to experience the divine directly: “li organi del corpo saranno forti / a tutto ciò che potrà dilettare” (Par XIV 59-60). ![]() As Aquinas maintains, grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it (ST II-II Q 2 art. Saint Bernard also describes the complete journey to God as a journey from bodily to spiritual senses (Csi V:3). In this sense the spiritual path will be a marvelous journey through human feeling, from sensual to spiritual, or from natural to divine. Nor is it a distinction with regard to the principle of any possible contact and union with what is loved. The distinction between sensual and spiritual feeling is in fact a distinction with regard to the object towards which the soul opens itself, and not with regard to the movement of openness itself, which is the same. ![]() And again, in the final verses of Paradiso XXXII, through the words of Saint Bernard this time, Dante reiterates the importance of affect in the search for union with the divine: “tu mi seguirai con l’affezione / sí che dal dicer mio lo cor non parti” (149-150).ĭante’s attention to the emotional aspect of pilgrim’s journey leads me to focus on the perceptive dimension of the pilgrim’s senses, both physical and spiritual. The pilgrim of the Commedia –like Dante’s spiritual masters Saint Bernard, Hugh and Richard of Saint Victor, Saint Bonaventure and Saint Thomas Aquinas-believes that a sincere spiritual undertaking takes hold of someone not because of a great idea or a theological doctrine, but because of the intensity of feeling that provides him with the strength and passion to follow his path of purification.ĭante expresses this fundamental truth through Beatrice’s words: “non voglio che dubbi, ma sia certo, / che ricever la grazia è meritorio / secondo che l’affetto l’è aperto” (Par 64-66). In doing so I concentrate my study not primarily on the philosophical and theological structures of Dante’s journey, but on the feeling or the affectus that informs it. I read the Commedia as a text of spiritual practice, much like like Saint Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum or Saint Bernard’s De Diligendo Deo. This thesis proposes a theological and mystical interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The spiritual path conceived by Dante is the result of a perfect union between human and divine will, which is to say between nature and grace, or between philosophy and religion, and between fear and desire as instances of earthly and divine feeling. Aristotle, Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas are the main authorities on these affects in Dante’s poem. Dante points out that fear and desire are the first emotions of man, both in his earthly and in his divine perception of reality. When Dante, following his spiritual masters, speaks of the primacy of feeling in the spiritual path, he refers to two specific movements of the soul: fear and desire. ![]() The pilgrim of the Commedia –like Dante’s spiritual masters Saint Bernard, Hugh and Richard of Saint Victor, Saint Bonaventure and Saint Thomas Aquinas-believes that a sincere spiritual undertaking takes hold of someone not because of a great idea or a theological doctrine, but because of the intensity of feeling that provides him with the strength and passion to follow his path of purification. I read the Commedia as a text of spiritual practice, much like Saint Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum or Saint Bernard’s De Diligendo Deo.
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