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Often appears with: the nature and attributes of God · the problem of evil and theodicy · the fear of death · the earth and its formation · saints’ longing for embodiment · romans 8:11 · providence and divine governance · paradiso canto xiv · judgment, heaven, and hell · heavenly light intensity · funeral rites and burial · elements and corruption theory
Usually: commentary or gloss (2) · curiosity (2) · wonder (2) · narrative (1) · confronting death (1) · detachment (1) · praise (1)
“For will increase whate’er bestows on us Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme, Light which enables us to look on Him; Therefore the vision must perforce increase, Increase the ardour which from that is kindled, Increase the radiance which from this proceeds.” Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Paradise · insight
Aquinas adds that even if the body will never die, the “debt of death” remains and is remitted by God at a fitting time, while the defects’ persistence reflects conformity to Christ’s sufferings.
body is left to itself, so that according to diverse natural temperaments, some men's bodies are subject to more defects, some to fewer, although original sin is equal in all. Reply Obj. 2: Both original and actual sin are removed by the same cause that removes these defects, according to the Apostle (Rom. 8:11): "He . . . shall quicken . . . your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you": but each …
Beatrice and then the narrative move from abstract doctrine to celestial astronomy and hierarchy: the heavens are guided by divine providence, elements and living things are informed by created virtue, and resurrection is supported by the creation story of first parents.
Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world, Has been contented to proceed by each And all its ways to lift you up again; Nor ’twixt the first day and the final night Such high and such magnificent proceeding By one or by the other was or shall be; For God more bounteous was himself to give To make man able to uplift himself, Than if he only of himself had pardoned; And all the other modes were in…
The poem moves to another theological discussion: after bodies are reunited, paradise’s light and vision intensify, and the saints show yearning for their physical resurrection while Dante sees new light-circles.
Whoso lamenteth him that here we die That we may live above, has never there Seen the refreshment of the eternal rain. The One and Two and Three who ever liveth, And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One, Not circumscribed and all things circumscribing, Three several times was chanted by each one Among those spirits, with such melody That for all merit it were just reward; And, in the lustre most …