Short Take: Dante

I'm teaching Dante in my Art History/Literary History class, since we have arrived at the Middle Ages. I am using the Mark Musa translation of The Divine Comedy published by Penguin, which reads beautifully.

Dante was a fervent Christian believer, and that is putting it mildly. Dante firmly believed that all non-believers would go to hell and would suffer torments. He takes obvious relish in describing those torments. His theological position, the norm at the time, is so extreme that he believes that every human being who lived before Christ - including great benefactors of mankind such as Plato and Aristotle - went to hell because they did not accept Christ as their savior, even though there was no Christ in existence to accept yet. Tough luck, Greeks!

I do not share Dante's world-view - I reject it. He was deeply influential for centuries (and still). His influence undoubtedly had a pernicious side to it. And yet - he is one of the greatest writers who ever walked the planet, and there is nothing even mildly controversial about that view.

So what do I do? I deeply admire his artistry, reject most of his attitudes, and teach him in historical context. It seems to be a reasonable response to the complex of facts.

POSTSCRIPT: I mentioned to my students that for every thousand readers who tackle the Inferno, maybe one reads the Paradiso. People like the grotesque horror-movie side of Dante - boiling rivers of blood, sinners with their entrails hanging out, and suchlike.

POSTSCRIPT: This video response to the Inferno that I found on YouTube is strikingly well-done, with a killer soundtrack. My students certainly enjoyed it. There are a Purgatorio and Paradiso in the same series, which I have yet to watch.