A lecture by Professor Paul Contino, Pepperdine University

At the heart of Dante’s Divine Comedy is a vision of love—the Love that moves the sun and stars, but also the will of an errant Florentine pilgrim who is guided by others, and calls his fellow pilgrims to follow him on his journey. As he first descends and then ascends, Dante the pilgrim grows into a deeper understanding of the ways love can be misdirected, the practice of penitence, and, finally, the luminous vision of communal beatitude. We will follow Dante’s journey by looking closely at a few selected passages from his great poem and viewing works of art inspired by his journey.

Paul Contino is professor of great books in the Humanities / Teacher Education Division of Seaver College at Pepperdine University. He is the author of Dostoevsky’s Incarnational Realism: Finding Christ among the Karamazovs and the co-editor of Bakhtin and Religion: A Feeling for Faith, as well as numerous articles. He has won several awards for his teaching.