Dante and the Blessed Virgin

184 Pages·2010·1.16 MB·English

by  Ralph McInerny

M
Dante Dante
Dante and the
. . . Continued from front flap c
and the Blessed Virgin In Blessed Virgin
e
“Keen as our aesthetic enjoyment of the Comme-
r
dia may be,” McInerny explains in the epilogue, Ralph McInerny n Ralph McInerny
y
“intriguing as are the intellectual elements of the
narrative, we know that Dante was after a deeper “Dante was a literary genius with a profound understand- “The theme of this little book, Dante and the
response than those. He wanted to move us from ing of St. Thomas Aquinas and the philosophia perennis that Blessed Virgin, provides a Catholic reader with a
the misery of sin to eternal happiness. And he structured and permeated the Divina Commedia. Who better unique opportunity to respond to this central
shows us the inescapable centrality of the Blessed to help us get beyond the (brilliant) surface to the depths of element of the great poet’s work in a way that
Dante than the most literarily genial of Thomas’ twentieth-
Virgin Mary in that conversion.” This engagingly D goes far beyond scholarly or aesthetic appreci-
(and twenty-first-) century disciples, the indefatigable Ralph
written book will serve as a welcome guide for ation. . . . The Catholic can see Dante’s devotion
McInerny? Dante needed guides, from Vergil to Beatrice, to
anyone approaching Dante’s work for the first a to the Blessed Virgin in warm continuity with his
reach the summit of Paradiso. Fortunately, we have Ralph
time, as well as all those who value the work of n own beliefs and practices. Central as Mary is to
McInerny to accompany us on the same journey.”
Ralph McInerny. t the Divine Comedy, she has become even more
—Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.,
Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press e central in Catholic belief in the centuries since it
RALPH MCINERNY is professor of philosophy was written.” —from the Prologue

a
and the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval “Weaving together poetry, philosophy, and theology, Ralph n
Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is McInerny shows that ‘the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to d Dante and the Blessed Virgin is distinguished phi-

author and editor of numerous books, including Dante.’ Starting with the Vita Nuova and the beginning of the th and the losopher Ralph McInerny’s eloquent reading of
e
his autobiography, I Alone Have Escaped to Tell Divine Comedy, this becomes ever more explicit throughout B one of Western literature’s most famous works
You (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), and the great poem, till the magnificent closing cantos of the Par- l by a Christian writer. The book provides Catho-
the first two volumes of The Writings of Charles adiso. The book is beautifully written, making sense of every e Blessed lic readers, especially those new to Dante’s Divine
s
step, however complex at times, of the great journey to the
De Koninck (University of Notre Dame Press, s Comedy, with a concise companion volume.
gate of heaven described by Dante in the Commedia, drawing e
2008, 2009).
on Scripture, on Aquinas, on philosophers like Aristotle, on a d
McInerny draws from a diverse group of writers
medley of modern and contemporary writers, with immense
V throughout this book, including Plato, Aristotle,
learning. Dominant themes that concern everyone, such as
Virgin
i St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas,
love or happiness, are treated with freshness and clarity so r
the reader is made to feel that he or she is discovering them g and George Santayana. It is St. Thomas, however,
anew. The total effect is joy induced by the incredible wealth i to whom McInerny most often turns, and this
n
of content of this little book and by the light it sheds on so book also provides an accessible introduction
many vital issues.” to Thomistic moral philosophy, focusing on the
—Thomas De Koninck, Laval University appetites, the ordering of goods, the distinction
between the natural and the supernatural orders,
the classification of capital vices and virtues, and
Jacket art: Dante Alighieri and a Statue of the Virgin the nature of the theological virtues.
Mary. Images courtesy of clipart.com © [2009] Jupiter- University of Notre Dame Press
images Corporation. Notre Dame, IN 46556
Jacket design: Margaret Gloster undpress.nd.edu
Continued on back flap . . .
Ralph McInerny
McInerny.indd 1 11/17/09 1:51:51 PM
Dante and the BlesseD Virgin

Da n t e
and the
BlesseD Virgin
r a l p h M c i n e r n y
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2010 by University of notre Dame
notre Dame, indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
all rights reserved
Manufactured in the United states of america
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mcinerny, ralph M.
Dante and the Blessed Virgin / ralph Mcinerny.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn-13: 978-0-268-03517-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
isBn-10: 0-268-03517-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Dante alighieri, 1265–1321—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Dante alighieri,
1265–1321—Characters—Mary, Blessed Virgin, saint. 3. Mary, Blessed Virgin,
saint—in literature. i. title.
pQ4419.M2M35 2010
851'.1—dc22
2009041749
This book is printed on recycled paper.
For
Cathy, Mary, Anne, Nancy, Beth, Amy,
Terrill, Ellen, Clare, Lucy, Rita,
and Vivian
sed certe ad hoc opus nimiam omnino fateor esse meam
insufficientiam, propter nimiam materiam
incomprehensibilitatem, propter nimiam scientiae meae
tenuitatem, propter nimiam linguae meae indignitatem, et propter
nimiam personae laudandae laudem et laudabilitatem.
Certainly i must confess my utter insufficiency to write this
book—because of the matter, difficult of comprehension;
because of the thinness of my knowledge; because of the
unworthiness of my syle; and because of the profound praise
due the person to be honored.
—Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis, prologus
C O n t e n t s
prologue ix
note on translations, editions, and abbreviations xv
One
a new life Begins 1
tWO
in the Midst of My Days 13
three
The seven storey Mountain 35
fOUr
Queen of heaven 101
epilogue 143
notes 145
index 155

p r O l O g U e
One of the marvels of art is that our appreciation of it does not re-
quire that we share the outlook of the artist. There must, of course,
be sympathy, and more than sympathy, with the protagonist and with
his manner of viewing his plight. a reader in the third millennium
can be drawn into a greek tragedy and experience the anguish of a
character whose culture is utterly alien to his own. explanations of
this have been advanced. it requires a willing suspension of disbelief,
a dismissal of the differences, and then immersion in a plot involv-
ing decisions almost wholly foreign in their weight and gravitas to
those that engage the latter-day reader. Almost wholly foreign. What
counterpart in our times could there be, pace freud, to the dilemma
of Oedipus? nonetheless, it may well be said that beneath the unde-
niable strangeness is the note of familiarity, a familiarity due to our
common humanity. The great imaginative works bring about in us
a sense of affinity with agents living in cultural circumstances long
since gone.
But we need not appeal only to the chronologically distant. When
we read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the mesmerizing voice of the
narrator establishes a rapport with such a one as Kurtz, a Kurtz who,
alive or dead, we could never be. Moreover, we grasp the contrast be-
tween a europe that no longer exists and a colonial africa that is no
more. it seems not to matter at all that those referents no longer exist.
ix