Dante's Purgatorio (The Course)
By Jonathan Pageau and Richard Rohlin
Dante's Purgatorio (The Course)
By Jonathan Pageau and Richard Rohlin
The Symbolic World Ascends the Mountain
Purge the vices and ascend to the mysteries of Eden with Richard Rohlin and Jonathan Pageau!
In this 5-week, 15-hour online course, we continue our comprehensive read-through of Dante’s Divine Comedy with an examination of its second book, Purgatorio. Having confronted the unreality of sin, prepare to experience the reality of repentance as Dante is purged of his vices and made ready to begin his ascent into the spheres.
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Course Overview
The Divine Comedy is one of the greatest works of world literature, but it is also one of the best examples of applied Medieval Universal History. In his three-book epic, Dante draws on the Holy Scriptures, the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic tradition, classical epics, and ancient and medieval natural history and astronomy to build a powerful and enduring vision of the cosmos which transcends his own contemporary political concerns. It’s at once both the story of Christian civilization – and the things which threaten to destroy it – and also the story of every human person. In Inferno, we are confronted with the reality of sin, as Dante’s “piety” – his right response to God and man – is shaped almost entirely by negative examples.
Unfortunately, most people stop reading at Inferno, and never experience the power of Dante’s redemptive vision. In Purgatorio we’ll experience the next part of the process: purification as we ascend the cosmic mountain, are purged of vice, and take on virtues. Only then will we be ready to ascend into the Heavens and look upon the face of God. Even if you haven’t yet taken our Inferno class, you’ll still be able to get a great deal of benefit from this second installment in our three-part series of courses on The Divine Comedy. We’ll start you off with everything you need to get caught up to speed at the beginning of the course before diving into Dante’s poetry. We’ll also spend some time looking at other medieval visions of purgatory so that we can truly appreciate just how insightful and edifying Dante’s is.
Presenters: Richard Rohlin and Jonathan Pageau are back for book two of Dante's Divine Comedy. Check out their previous course on Dante's Inferno.
5-Week online course: Lessons will be 3 hours long each, and live-streamed on our Circle community platform on Tuesdays starting August 27th, 2024, 2-5 pm EST.
Recordings: All class recordings will be made available to you, and you will even be able to download audio versions at your convenience.
Patron discount: All Symbolic World patrons at the Involved tier or higher qualify for a 10% discount on the course. Please ensure you're logged into our website and a card will appear at the top of this course page. Apply your discount code at the checkout.
Exclusive Insights: Gain exclusive access to insights into the history, context, symbolism, and application of Dante's Comedy. This course will grant unique insights you won't find anywhere else on the internet.
Interactive Learning Experience: Join the Symbolic World online community platform where the course will be hosted. Here you can ask questions, engage in discussions, and gain insights from both the presenters and fellow students.
Course Details
Live Course Schedule
All live lessons take place at 2-5 pm EST starting August 27th, 2024.
- Lesson 1: Tuesday, August 27th, 2024, 2-5 pm EST
- Lesson 2: Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024, 2-5 pm EST
- Lesson 3: Tuesday, September 10th, 2024, 2-5 pm EST
- Lesson 4: Tuesday, September 17th, 2024, 2-5 pm EST
- Lesson 5: Monday, September 23th, 2024, 2-5 pm EST
What you'll need
We recommend: The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi.
All additional course materials will be provided.
Course Outline
Lesson 1: The Pains of Purgatory – Cantos I-VIII - Aug 27th
In our first lesson, we’ll begin with a deep dive into the medieval doctrine of Purgatory as it was understood in Dante’s day, clearing the cobwebs of modern misunderstandings and allowing us to see exactly why and how Dante’s depiction differs. Then, we’ll begin our ascent up the slopes of the mountain, meeting those who, like us, still wait to be purified.
Lesson 2: The Gift of Confession – Cantos IX-XVII - Sep 3rd
Making our way up the slopes of Ante-Purgatory, we come with Dante to its entrance, where Dante undertakes a ritual act of penance. It is then that we enter into Purgatory proper, where we come face to face with the “heaviest” of vices – Pride – and learn its remedy. Then, we’ll receive our first glimmer of the light of Paradise as we confront the vices of Envy and Wrath. This light is too much for us to bear, and we must be content to rest in the darkness as we spend the night on the mountain and listen to Virgil explain the ways that loves go wrong and are transformed into vices.
Lesson 3: The Mountain Quakes – Cantos XVIII-XXIII - Sep 10th
In this lesson, we’ll make a suitably hasty passage through the terrace of Sloth before meeting with the Roman poet Statius, a great soul who has just finished out his time in Purgatory and is now ready to ascend to Paradise – although not without an amazing discourse about the power of pagan texts to draw men towards the Gospel.
Lesson 4: Making Bodies, Making Poetry – Cantos XXIV-XXVIII - Sep 17th
In our penultimate week, we’ll move through the last terraces of Purgatory, culminating in our purification from the vice of Lust. Now free from his sins, Dante literally returns to Eden where Dante is able to look at last upon what was lost to Adama.
Lesson 5: The Mysteries of Eden – Cantos XXIX-XXXIII - Sep 23rd
It is with little fanfare that we say farewell to our old teacher Virgil. Beatrice has come to replace him, and she has both stern rebukes to give out and deep mysteries into which she would initiate us. Dante is shown the Five Mysteries of Eden, culminating in a dazzling vision in which all of time unfolds through the lens of medieval Universal History.
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Presenters
Richard Rohlin
Richard Rohlin is a software developer, Germanic philologist, and Orthodox Christian living in Texas with his wife and children. He speaks and publishes on Germanic poetry, the Inklings, and the Sacramental Imagination. He regularly contributes to Jonathan Pageau’s The Symbolic World YouTube channel through the Universal History series, which has recently launched a 6-week course studying the epic poem Beowulf.
Richard co-hosts The Amon Sul Podcast, and has published several works of fiction and non-fiction. He’s currently working on a collection of essays called Finding the Golden Key: Essays Toward a Recovery of the Sacramental Imagination. His superhero pulp novel Guardians: The Eye of Horus is currently under development as a graphic novel. Richard is also a life-long tabletop gamer and wrapped up a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to produce Amboria: Roleplaying in the World Under Starlight, which is now in production and preparing to ship.
Jonathan Pageau
Jonathan Pageau is a renowned liturgical artist, writer, and public speaker. Through his popular YouTube channel The Symbolic World, he has become a sought-out interpreter of the deep patterns in stories. With his 2022 publication of God's'Dog: Monster, a graphic novel invented with his brother Matthieu Pageau and artist Cord Nielson, Jonathan proved himself a powerful storyteller in his own right. The project’s successful crowdfunding encouraged him to continue his efforts to reclaim the storytelling landscape by starting a publishing company called Symbolic World Press (SWP).
SWP’s maiden publication is The Tale of Snow White and the Widow Queen, the first of an eight-book series of fairy tales in which Pageau explores a new way of telling fairy tales: one which is both aware of our cultural moment and simultaneously committed to honoring the deeply celebratory of the roots these stories have planted in our common imagination.
Jonathan’s YouTube channel, The Symbolic World, now has nearly 200k subscribers, and the community that has developed around his listenership is an active, supportive, and talented collection of artists and thinkers from around the globe. He recently launched a new Symbolic World Website, where people can sign up to access exclusive content unavailable on the regular channel, and to engage in the Symbolic World Community for timely discussions around symbolism, literature, religion, art, and culture. The site has also begun hosting paid courses, where people can sign up for an interactive deep dive into specific works, such as Beowulf, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, and the rebirth of Christian Metaphysics.
