Exploring the Relevance of Dante's Inferno

We are reading the Inferno together! Dcn. Harrison Garlick is joined by Dr. Jeremy Holmes of Wyoming Catholic College to give an introduction to Dante's Inferno and discuss the first canto.

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Reading Schedule for Lent 2025:

Introduction & the Dark Woods

1. Intro & Canto 1 (3.4.25) with Dr. Jeremy Holmes (Wyoming Catholic)

Vestibule of Hell, Limbo & Lust

2. Cantos 2-5 (3.11.25) with Dr. Jennifer Frey (TU) and Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson (Pepperdine).

Gluttony, Spendthrift/Hoarders, Wrathful/Acedia & Heretics

3. Cantos 6-11 (3.18.25) with Dr. Jason Baxter of Benedictine College.

Violence: Against Neighbor, Self & God

4. Cantos 12-17 (3.25.25) with Fr. Thomas Esposito, O. Cist., of the University of Dallas.

Simple Fraud: Pits 1-7

5. Cantos 18-25 (4.1.25) with Noah Tyler, CFO of CLT, and Gabriel Blanchard, Staff Writer for CLT.

Simple Fraud: Pits 8-10

6. Cantos 26-31 (4.8.25) with Dr. Donald Prudlo (TU)

Complex Fraud: The Traitors

7. Cantos 32-34 (4.15.25) with Evan Amato.

Questions from our Reader's Guide:

What is the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri?

The Divine Comedy (or the Comedy as Dante called it) tells the story of Dante the Pilgrim’s penitential journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven in three volumes or canticles: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. It is called a comedy in the classical sense of ending well, as opposed to tragedy which ends poorly. Dante the Poet masterfully weaves together Holy Scripture, Greco-Roman mythology, Aristotle, Roman history, St. Thomas Aquinas, and more to present the reader an excellent map of the human soul and its loves. “It is the Summa Theologiae in poetry,” says Dr. Prudlo, “and I think it's one of the greatest, greatest achievements, single achievements by a human being that's ever been attained.”

What is the Inferno?

The Inferno tells of Dante’s pilgrimage through hell alongside his pagan guide, the Roman poet Virgil. The Inferno is less an eschatological treatise attempting to explain the actual geography of hell and more a moral tale on the reality of human desire and the soul. It not a mystical vision akin to St. John’s Revelation or the ecstasies of St. Teresa of Avila. As such, Dante the Poet will place mythological characters in hell, like the three-headed dog Cerberus or the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto. The purpose is not literal but pedagogical. In a similar fashion, the placement of a soul in hell, like a Pope Nicholas III or Helen of Troy, is not a eschatological claim of who is actually in hell but a moral one. Everything in the Inferno is intended to instruct us in virtue and the proper rectitude of the soul.

Why should we read Dante’s Inferno?

The Inferno is an invitation to examine your soul. Dante the Poet is a master of the soul and its loves. He tears away the acceptable veneer on human desire and exposes the ugly reality of sin and its transformative effect upon the human soul into something imploded and bestial. And Dante the Poet invites the reader to contemplate his or her soul and its loves within an ordered whole. As stated, the Divine Comedy is St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae is poetic form, and Dante the Poet weaves together Holy Scripture, Aristotle, mythology, astronomy, and more into one intelligible cosmos. Reality is intelligible and holds lessons for our sanctification and salvation. We are invited to become students of our own souls by understanding a hell structured around love, the horror of sin, and the ugliness of evil. Dante wants to save your soul, as Dr. Holmes notes. We join ourselves to Dante the Pilgrim, an analogue of humanity, and mature with him throughout his penitential journey.

You can read Dante's Inferno with Ascend!