Pope Francis Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Short letter written by the current Pope praising Dante Alighieri on the 700th year of Dante's death. The majority of the literature citations are from The Divine Comedy, but other works are also cited. Several other remarks by popes are repeated but in this Papal Letter Dante is given credit for his vision of God, his relationship to the visible church even as aspects were objects of his criticism, and lastly the message of Dante be elevated as a profound experience of human transformation. This letter is more of an exercise of literary criticism than a biography of a saint (Dante remains uncanonized) but no catholic writer has been more praised than he. Academics are still learning from Dante's works and they still have yet to appreciate all the complexity and subtlety of the Divine Comedy. Dante studies are always worth engaging in and even more so when taught well. The Inferno is still taught in survey courses but the full impact of this difficult poem can only be had when reading the entire three part work. Many YouTube videos are available on the Dante which are very useful but can't compare with studying his poems in a group discussion. I was luck enough to take a whole semester class at Cal State Long Beach on Dante.… (altro)