Beginner`s Guide to Dante`s Divine Comedy

Jason M. Baxter (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is director of the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College. He previously served as visiting associate professor at Notre Dame University and taught at Wyoming Catholic College. He has been invited to speak at universities across the country on the modern relevance of the liberal arts and on topics pertaining to Dante.

• ContentsIntroduction: Dante as Poet, Prophet, and ExilePart 1: INFERNO1. Zooming In and Zooming Out: How to Read Inferno (Inferno 1-2)2. The Fear of Hell and the Fear of God (Inferno 3-9)3. The Graveyard of the Heretics and the Wasteland of the Violent (Inferno 10-17)4. White-Collar Criminals and Sins against Words (Inferno 18-26)5. Icy Hearts and Frozen Souls: The Lowest Portion of Hell (Inferno 27-34)Part 2: PURGATORIO6. Waiting for God: An Introduction to Purgatorio7. The People outside the Gate: Freedom, Responsibility, and Vulnerability (Purgatorio 1-9)8. In Search of Deep Cleansing: The Middle Canti (Purgatorio 10-24)9. Returning to Humanity's First Home: Epic and Lyric in the Garden of Eden (Purgatorio 25-28)10. "As the Heavens Are Higher Than the Earth": Dante's Apocalyptic Vision (Purgatorio 29-33)Part 3: PARADISO11. "Great Fires Come from Tiny Sparks": An Introduction to Paradiso (Paradiso 1-2)12. "In His Will Is Our Peace": Individuality and Polyphony in Paradiso (Paradiso 3-20)13. Intellectual Fasting and the Test of Love: Saturn, Stars, and the Crystalline Sphere (Paradiso 21-29)14. The Canti of Surprise: Garden, Book, and Rose (Paradiso 30-33)Conclusion: The Wonder of the ComedyIndex

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