In the first of a non-chronological series on Dante's 'Divine Comedy,' we consider the punishments the great poet imagines for the various kinds of traitors.
I was once fortunate enough to attend a conference as a seminarian by Dr. David Allen White (RIP) on Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” In discussing Shylock’s absurd defense of usury in that story, Dr. White observed that Dante placed both sodomites and usurers in the Circle of the Violent. Seemingly a strange pairing and a strange consignment, Dr. White explained that both the sodomite and the usurer commit sins of violence against nature: The sodomite, by using that which is meant to be fertile and making it barren, and the usurer by taking that which is barren and making it fertile.
I taught The Inferno of freshman high school students a couple of times in a Catholic school. Very well received.
Lucky them! And you!
I was once fortunate enough to attend a conference as a seminarian by Dr. David Allen White (RIP) on Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” In discussing Shylock’s absurd defense of usury in that story, Dr. White observed that Dante placed both sodomites and usurers in the Circle of the Violent. Seemingly a strange pairing and a strange consignment, Dr. White explained that both the sodomite and the usurer commit sins of violence against nature: The sodomite, by using that which is meant to be fertile and making it barren, and the usurer by taking that which is barren and making it fertile.
Dr White's stuff was great. His lectures on Eliot and Dante were very formative for me as younger man.
As an exploration - Dante's discontent with the Papacy would be interesting. In Canto 27, he throws immense shade on Boniface VIII.