Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Kristóf Oltvai at oltvai@uchicago.edu. Books and dinner will be provided.
This winter quarter, become our traveling companion as we continue a pilgrimage of unforgettable cosmic and spiritual grandeur through Dante Alighieri’s Commedia. Having passed through the horrors of hell, our poet-protagonist turns to pondering questions of love, virtue, grace, and divine providence as he journeys along Mount Purgatory’s breathtaking vistas, through the otherworldly astral spheres, into the bosom of the eternal Church Triumphant with his trusted guides: Virgil, Beatrice, and the “last of the fathers,” Bernard of Clairvaux – who, in the mystical climax of this crowning achievement of European literature, brings Dante before the throne of the living God.
Even if you did not have the chance to participate in the fall quarter, we warmly invite you to join as we focus on two themes:
(1) Dante as a moral pedagogue – as one who leads us from accepting the righteousness of God’s judgment; through pursuing virtue as a prerequisite for beatitude; to seeing, at last, even that ethical growth as a gift of grace.
(2) The communion of saints as the fabric of the universe.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet again bi-weekly on Thursdays (beginning January 16th) from 6:00pm – 7:30pm over dinner. We will read 10 cantos before each meeting.
A copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy will be provided to all participants. The reading may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during business hours at the start of the fall quarter.
- Week 2 (Thursday, Jan. 16): Purgatorio 17-26
- Week 4 (Thursday, Jan. 30): Purgatorio 27-33, Paradiso 1-3
- Week 6 (Thursday, Feb. 13): Paradiso 4-13
- Week 8 (Thursday, Feb. 27): Paradiso 14-23
- Week 10 (Thursday, March 13): Paradiso 24-33