Dante's Jigsaw Puzzle Of Love And God

Dante's first revolution is linguistic. The poem is The Commedia, not originally The Divine Comedy, and it chooses the comic-low register: ordinary people, common vernacular, Tuscan instead of Latin. Source trail 1:10 All right, so his book, his poetry is called The Commedia, The Comedy. It's not called The Divine Comedy. Divine Comedy is something that we call it later on. He first referred to it as The Commedia. Why is it called Th... The result is not merely style. The poem is so powerful that Tuscan becomes the language of Italy. Source trail 2:33 And this is the, of course, the local language of Florence, where he is from. And because The Commedia is so wonderfully produced, Tuscan will become the official language of the Italian peninsula, okay? So, today in It... A low language becomes civilizational form.

The second revolution is mental. Dante reaches paradise to ask what God is, but nobody knows: not the angels, not Mary, not even God. Source trail 5:05 And to the left, to the left, is God. And he is this pristine, ball of light. No one knows what it is. Not even God knows what it is. And over here is the host, okay? And at the very center is Mary. What is amazing abou... The poem's tools are paradox and structure. A virgin mother, a daughter of her son, a creature who makes the creator: contradiction after contradiction pulls the mind in. Structure holds the pressure. The reader becomes obsessed, and the puzzle starts producing a new mind. Source trail 6:277:51 Think of paradox as a puzzle. Okay? What is the hand, what is the sound of one hand clapping? Okay, a paradox. A truth that seems like a contradiction. He will use this all the time. And the other is structure. Okay? Th...And so we are talking about the creation for the divine comedy of a new mind for humanity. If Homer was the father of Western, sorry, of Greek civilization, then Dante is the father of modern European civilization. And...

The genre is apocalyptic literature: God reveals truth through a prophet or poet. Source trail 9:24 Apocalyptic literature just means God reveals the truth to us through a prophet or a poet. Okay? So this is Ezekiel, which is one of the earliest books of the Hebrew Bible. And this really starts the tradition. And so w... Ezekiel eats the scroll and returns to speak God's word. Dante inherits that upper tradition and overturns it. Source trail 10:30 In my mouth, it was as sweet as honey. Okay? So this is the idea of the upper level tradition. What Dante will do is completely overturn this tradition. Okay? All right. Okay. Yeah. Next slide. All right. So before we l... The truth will not simply be placed in the prophet's mouth. It must be imagined, remembered, tested, and solved.

Augustine is the dark-age machine Dante must break. Source trail 10:3014:04 In my mouth, it was as sweet as honey. Okay? So this is the idea of the upper level tradition. What Dante will do is completely overturn this tradition. Okay? All right. Okay. Yeah. Next slide. All right. So before we l...The body is flawed because it's created out of dust, out of nothing. But the soul is perfect because it was breathed into by God. Okay? Once we are, once we are freed of our bodies, we have no more desire. We don't want... In Jiang's reconstruction, Augustine says that when man lives by the standard of man, he is like the devil. Pride is the ego's reach toward Godhood. Adam eats the fruit because he loves Eve, so love becomes sin. Source trail 11:38 Second is, now could anything but pride have been the start of the evil will? And the idea here is, if left to our own devices, we will strive to be like God. Pride in the city of God is used almost synonymously like th... Human beings are flawed because they are created out of nothing. Salvation means leaving body, desire, sex, hunger, fighting, and emotion behind. Source trail 14:04 The body is flawed because it's created out of dust, out of nothing. But the soul is perfect because it was breathed into by God. Okay? Once we are, once we are freed of our bodies, we have no more desire. We don't want...

Dante answers by moving Mary to the center. Source trail 5:05 And to the left, to the left, is God. And he is this pristine, ball of light. No one knows what it is. Not even God knows what it is. And over here is the host, okay? And at the very center is Mary. What is amazing abou... If Mary were sinful, then God would carry sin; if she gives birth to God without sin, then something in human love can cleanse sin. The miracle is not only that God comes to earth. The deeper miracle is that a mortal woman gives birth to God. Source trail 5:05 And to the left, to the left, is God. And he is this pristine, ball of light. No one knows what it is. Not even God knows what it is. And over here is the host, okay? And at the very center is Mary. What is amazing abou... A mother's love becomes the theological breach Source trail 17:40 agree with Augustine and say and believe that everyone is born in sin, and we are incapable of redeeming ourselves from our sin, then how do we explain Mary? Right? Mary gave birth to Jesus. If Mary had sin, then God ha... in Augustine's system.

That does not make love indulgence. Jiang uses deliberately crude examples to separate love from appetite and transaction. Robbing a bank for a lover is not love. Source trail 17:4018:42 agree with Augustine and say and believe that everyone is born in sin, and we are incapable of redeeming ourselves from our sin, then how do we explain Mary? Right? Mary gave birth to Jesus. If Mary had sin, then God ha...Right? That's love, right? What Donny is saying is, that's not love. That is not love. Ask yourself this question. If your mother and your child says to you, mother, I only love you if you let me eat chocolate every day... Giving a child whatever they demand is not love. Love wants the other's health and happiness. Source trail 18:42 Right? That's love, right? What Donny is saying is, that's not love. That is not love. Ask yourself this question. If your mother and your child says to you, mother, I only love you if you let me eat chocolate every day... Nobility is not being free of sin; nobility is redeeming oneself from sin through will and love. Source trail 18:42 Right? That's love, right? What Donny is saying is, that's not love. That is not love. Ask yourself this question. If your mother and your child says to you, mother, I only love you if you let me eat chocolate every day...

The next reversal is harsher. God does not know who God is because omniscience has no imagination. Source trail 15:15 Okay? So let's go to Dante. And remember, Dante will be a rebuttal to all these ideas. All right. So this is the Imperium, the final level in the structure of the Divine Comedy. And Dante has a mission. His mission is t... The angels do not know either. Bernard, the highest angelic guide, burns for Dante's vision because only this mortal can give heaven the truth. Source trail 20:47 And only this man Dante, can give us the truth, even though we are angels. Only Dante, a mortal man, has access to truth. We angels do not have access to truth. This is radical and revolutionary. Okay? And honestly, if... God must be imagined from below. Source trail 19:4720:47 who from the deepest hollow in the universe, he came from hell, okay, up to this height has seen the lives of spirits one by one. Now, please. Okay? He's been on this amazing spiritual journey. He's seen everyone. Throu...And only this man Dante, can give us the truth, even though we are angels. Only Dante, a mortal man, has access to truth. We angels do not have access to truth. This is radical and revolutionary. Okay? And honestly, if...

Vision is not enough. Dante has to preserve the vision, and Jiang turns that into a model of mind: imagination becomes story, and story becomes memory. Source trail 21:47 And what is radical about this is that our most advanced neuroscience, our most advanced scientists who understand how the brain works, they will tell you this is exactly how the brain works. You imagine the world and t... Dante sees something too vast for speech, like the universe before the universe Source trail 22:4623:53 That light, sublime, which in itself is true. From that point on, what I could see was greater and then speech couldn't show. At such a sight, it fails. And memory fails when faced with such excess. He is, he's being bl...Donnie is experiencing God as the universe before the universe. Before the big bang. And he's seeing how everything is connected. But he's immortal. He cannot connect all the pieces. He does not know what he's seeing. H... , a pre-Big-Bang unity where everything separate is gathered into one volume. Source trail 22:46 That light, sublime, which in itself is true. From that point on, what I could see was greater and then speech couldn't show. At such a sight, it fails. And memory fails when faced with such excess. He is, he's being bl... He then spends decades trying to remember what cannot be directly held.

The puzzle tightens into the Holy Trinity: three circles, separate and the same. Source trail 25:57 But through my sight which as I gaze grew stronger that so appearance even as I altered seemed to be changing in the deep and bright. Okay? Can you continue please? Essence of that exalted light. Three circles appeared... But the destabilizing discovery is inside the circle. Dante sees the human effigy inside God. Source trail 27:02 And this too what I saw is such a great one please. But he keeps on looking. What does he see? Eternal light you only dwell within yourself and only you know you. Self -knowing self -known you love and smile upon yourse... Augustine said God is good and humans are evil, separate, fallen, dust. Dante sees us in the essence of God. Then he receives the answer in a flash, and the poem refuses to spell it out. Source trail 29:07 But then my mind was struck by light that flashed and with this light received what it had been asked. He now has an inspiration. He now can imagine what God is. He now knows the answer. He knows the answer. He's figure... It works only if the reader solves it.

Jiang gives his answer by going backward to Beatrice. Dante loved her all his life, wrote poetry for her, and wrote The Comedy for her. Source trail 31:16 And Dante was wealthy, but not as wealthy as Beatrice's family. So Beatrice was betrothed to someone of her social status. And she died when she was 24 giving birth. Okay? Dante never forgot about her. She wrote poetry... When they meet in heaven, the scene refuses sentimental fantasy. They do not sit around eating chocolate. They ask questions about the universe. Love appears as shared investigation. Source trail 31:1632:19 And Dante was wealthy, but not as wealthy as Beatrice's family. So Beatrice was betrothed to someone of her social status. And she died when she was 24 giving birth. Okay? Dante never forgot about her. She wrote poetry...So, so this is what Beatrice says to Dante. Direct your mind to God in gratefulness, she said, Beatrice. He has brought us to the first star, which is the moon. Okay? In this cosmology, the first star is the moon. I ans...

The question is why the moon has dark marks. Dante gives the accepted theory: dense parts reflect light, rare parts let it pass. Beatrice says no. In the spiritual universe, all light reflects brightly because light comes from God's essence. Source trail 34:24 Right? And then she's like, okay, then your theory is there are some caverns in the moon that go deep. Okay? But I'm going to show you that's not the case either. In the spiritual universe. She's not talking about the p... And when Dante does not believe her, she does not demand obedience. She tells him to do an experiment. In heaven, doubt is not sin. Doubt is divine. Source trail 34:2435:33 Right? And then she's like, okay, then your theory is there are some caverns in the moon that go deep. Okay? But I'm going to show you that's not the case either. In the spiritual universe. She's not talking about the p...Doubt is heavenly. It's divine. Yet an experiment were you to try it could free you from your cavern. The cavern is all light reflects just as brightly as anywhere. Okay? And the source of your light is what your arts c...

The experiment is simple: mirrors and a candle. Source trail 35:33 Doubt is heavenly. It's divine. Yet an experiment were you to try it could free you from your cavern. The cavern is all light reflects just as brightly as anywhere. Okay? And the source of your light is what your arts c... The reflected candle gets smaller as mirrors recede, but its brightness remains. Jiang keeps adding layers until the image reaches a million mirrors. The point is not optics alone. Distance does not lessen divine light. Source trail 36:33 Within, if you're holding the candle, within the three candles are these images of you holding the candle. Now, in the third mirror you'll be smaller. What Beatrice is saying is the candle will just be as bright. Is tha... If it is reflected from the first candle, it burns just as bright. Source trail 36:33 Within, if you're holding the candle, within the three candles are these images of you holding the candle. Now, in the third mirror you'll be smaller. What Beatrice is saying is the candle will just be as bright. Is tha...

The mirror experiment returns to the Godhead. The three circles are also three candles, and inside them is a human. God is the candle that burns in you Source trail 37:40 All right? That's the experiment. Sorry. Hold on. Now, guys, let me ask you this question. What is this? You remember? It's a Godhead. It's what Donny saw when he experienced God. You remember, he saw three circles and... and reflects the good. The more one loves another human, the brighter the candle burns. Source trail 37:40 All right? That's the experiment. Sorry. Hold on. Now, guys, let me ask you this question. What is this? You remember? It's a Godhead. It's what Donny saw when he experienced God. You remember, he saw three circles and... When you love, you experience God; that is why love is without sin. Source trail 37:4039:01 All right? That's the experiment. Sorry. Hold on. Now, guys, let me ask you this question. What is this? You remember? It's a Godhead. It's what Donny saw when he experienced God. You remember, he saw three circles and...kiki go back please okay sorry next slide all right next slide no no no no no no no yeah yes okay this is the ende all the dry in comedy all right let's read it again now that we have this information here force -filled...

The final line of the poem now has an answer: love moves the sun and the other stars. Source trail 39:01 kiki go back please okay sorry next slide all right next slide no no no no no no no yeah yes okay this is the ende all the dry in comedy all right let's read it again now that we have this information here force -filled... God is love, love is God, love is the universe's binding force. Source trail 39:01 kiki go back please okay sorry next slide all right next slide no no no no no no no yeah yes okay this is the ende all the dry in comedy all right let's read it again now that we have this information here force -filled... But it cannot be seen in the old way. God is something the human being must imagine. Source trail 39:01 kiki go back please okay sorry next slide all right next slide no no no no no no no yeah yes okay this is the ende all the dry in comedy all right let's read it again now that we have this information here force -filled...

A student asks who Dante is writing to. The answer is strange and exact: he writes for the universe. Source trail 40:1341:27 comedy any questions about this so far um that's a really good question who is he writing to who is his audience um so he's writing in Tuscan rather than Latin and he calls it the Commedia so I think he's trying to avoi...curious as to what this is and at first they can't figure it out but they stick at it and over time it begins to transform how they see the world okay does it make sense he's a prophet he's a poet and so he's not really... Tuscan helps him avoid the Latin-reading Church. Patronage gives him cover. The real object is a secret box left for someone in the future. Source trail 40:13 comedy any questions about this so far um that's a really good question who is he writing to who is his audience um so he's writing in Tuscan rather than Latin and he calls it the Commedia so I think he's trying to avoi... A reader becomes curious, cannot solve it at first, stays with it, and slowly has their world transformed. Source trail 41:27 curious as to what this is and at first they can't figure it out but they stick at it and over time it begins to transform how they see the world okay does it make sense he's a prophet he's a poet and so he's not really...

The lecture closes by returning to Augustine line by line. No, humans are not made from nothing; humans are created out of God. Source trail 46:03 love is the greatest force in the universe because it is God we're created out of nothing no we're created out of God okay God is in us God is with us the heavenly city was created by self -love the love of God uh was c... No, pride is not simply evil; pride is the drive to become better. Source trail 44:55 translation okay any more questions okay so so um so so so so can we do one more slide the Augustine slide and then we'll end yeah okay yeah so let's go to Augustine okay Augustine says here man lives by the center of m... No, love is not sin; love is the greatest force in the universe because it is God. Source trail 46:03 love is the greatest force in the universe because it is God we're created out of nothing no we're created out of God okay God is in us God is with us the heavenly city was created by self -love the love of God uh was c...

The sharpest claim is that love only exists between humans. Source trail 46:03 love is the greatest force in the universe because it is God we're created out of nothing no we're created out of God okay God is in us God is with us the heavenly city was created by self -love the love of God uh was c... You cannot love money, chocolate, or even God as an idea. Source trail 46:03 love is the greatest force in the universe because it is God we're created out of nothing no we're created out of God okay God is in us God is with us the heavenly city was created by self -love the love of God uh was c... To love God is to love the person in whom God burns: Beatrice, a mother, a son, another human being. Theology becomes relation. Source trail 46:03 love is the greatest force in the universe because it is God we're created out of nothing no we're created out of God okay God is in us God is with us the heavenly city was created by self -love the love of God uh was c...

The universe has no final end Source trail 46:52 says this there is no end to the universe at no point will we know everything we exist because we are continued God's Legacy when we imagine things we are create we are engaged engaged in the act of creation that is God... and no point at which everything is known. Human beings continue God's legacy by imagining. To imagine is to create Source trail 46:52 says this there is no end to the universe at no point will we know everything we exist because we are continued God's Legacy when we imagine things we are create we are engaged engaged in the act of creation that is God... ; to love and imagine is the ultimate mission because it creates new worlds for God to celebrate. Source trail 46:52 says this there is no end to the universe at no point will we know everything we exist because we are continued God's Legacy when we imagine things we are create we are engaged engaged in the act of creation that is God... Dante's paradise is not escape from earth. It is the recovery of human love, doubt, pride, will, and imagination as divine powers.