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.
In what is perhaps the literary triumph of the European imagination, Dante Alighieri’s Commedia offers a vision of unforgettable cosmic and spiritual grandeur. Join us on this journey from the horrors of Hell, along Mount Purgatory’s breathtaking vistas, all the way into the bosom of the eternal Church Triumphant as our poet-protagonist discovers the meaning of sin, love, virtue, and redemption in conversation with his guides, Virgil and Beatrice.
This reading group will 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.