Brilliant, Amy. This is running parallel with my developments - the gods stripped of their divinity are nevertheless our relationships with Being. They are the visages of Being, the liminal. Edith Stein said that we in the finite world can know the infinite but only if we have analogies that span both worlds and therefore carry us from the finite to the infinite. I call that access road the liminal world, or the playground of the gods.
Amazing. Thank you Amy. Since I was a student of Literature and History, I think that medieval time reached a point of maximum clarity in the understanding and exposition of the relation between Heaven and Earth and Dante wrote, under God inspiration, the conclusive summary of the time that European population was most close and focus on God. After him, all is humanism. Your writing is really bringing out the importance of this time and in a way that I can offer to people that consider my interests useless or even wrong. Thanks to make difficult concepts easier without compromising their original beauty and loftiness.
Thank you so much Claudia. Your comment makes my day! I've felt and believed all the same things you've written here, and I really value your perspective--especially as a student of Literature/History and an Italian. Buon anno! :)
Interesting, I like this piece, but is this an historical explication or a proposal for renewing an outdated cosmology? In short: what do YOU think? How do you square Dante’s vision of the cosmos with our modern understanding of the universe?
Hi Chris, thank you for your excellent and thoughtful question! The short answer is that I've recently spent a lot of time thinking about, researching, and writing about this very topic (in graduate school) and I don't yet have a solid answer! (Which is partly why I continue to write about it...)
Scientifically speaking--and this would require an entire article to explain--whether our solar system is heliocentric or geocentric (according to the Tychonic system, not the Ptolemaic) is a matter of perspective. From the basis of our experience as humans, though, living on *this* planet and seeing the whole cosmos from an anthropocentric perspective, I'm in agreement with historian John Lukacs (1924-2019) and scientist/philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) who say that we need a renewed epistemology (the study of knowing) and historical consciousness that places man once more at the center of the cosmos, rather than some arbitrary and artificially "objective" position removed from our actual experience. Whatever model of the universe is currently in fashion, what we experience *phenomenologically* is the sun rising in the east, setting in the west, and the fixed constellations revolving around us. That is enough for me, humanly speaking.
In the end, I take consolation in C.S. Lewis's famous Epilogue in "The Discarded Image" in which he reminds us that all these models of the universe are just that--models. He writes,
"I have made no serious effort to hide the fact that the old [medieval] Model delights me as I believe it delighted our ancestors. Few constructions of the imagination seem to me to have combined splendour, sobriety, and coherence in the same degree. It is possible that some readers have long been itching to remind me that it had a serious defect; it was not true.
"I agree. It was not true. But I would like to end by saying that this charge can no longer have exactly the same sort of weight for us that it would have had in the nineteenth century. We then claimed, as we still claim, to know much more about the real universe than the medievals did; and hoped, as we still hope, to discover yet more truths about it in the future. But the meaning of the words, 'know' and 'truth' in this context has begun to undergo a certain change."
This change is epistemological as much as scientific and I don't claim to have any answers (that's for people much smarter than me!) I'm just trying to widen my imaginative vision by exploring and better understanding the inherited ideas that have shaped it. Thanks again for your curiosity, Chris. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year; if only it had started without the carnage. Tragic and infuriating.
One of the best references I’ve found to make sense of Dante’s cosmos (which can surely induce vertigo) is “The Sun and the Other Stars of Dante Alighieri — A Cosmographic Journey Through the Divina Commedia.” It’s written by two Italian astrophysicists. One, Sperello di Serego Alighieri, is a descendant of Dante. There’s a fascinating 2023 interview (podcast and transcript) at Plough.com about the book (the interviewer described it as the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” to Dante’s cosmography.) The book describes the historical setting, astronomy before Dante, and then offers a detailed tour of Dante’s parallel universes and two orders of experience (the physical and the spiritual). The podcast interviewer (Susannah Black) aptly described the completeness of Dante’s perspective as a “synoptic and complete vision” “because he brings classical myth and Biblical reference and scientific observation together in these incredibly condensed ways.” The totality and coherence of his cosmological vision is astounding — interweaving philosophy, astronomy, astrology, theology, culture, politics, and history. Richard L. Poss, in his paper “Stars and Spirituality in the Cosmology of Dante’s Commedia,” cites Professor Giuseppe Mazzotta describing the fusion as a 'translation of Beatitude into astronomical terms'.”
One interesting and pretty cheeky initiative (for the Middle Ages) was making Beatrice his astronomy teacher and coach. In Canto II of Paradiso, in the course of her querying him about the meaning of spots on the moon, she confidently explains that his usual ways of attaining knowledge, through his senses and his reason, are inadequate for grasping the spiritual realities of the heavens. She says “Now, forasmuch as, following the senses, Thou seest that reason has short wings.” Thus the need for a novel and nuanced approach to the fusion of Christian theology and pagan cosmology.
I’m particularly partial to his depiction of Mars (traditionally associated, of course, with war and aggression in Roman mythology) — he portrays it as the heavenly sphere reflecting not just physical battle, but also spiritual warfare, with the Holy Warriors who fought for their faith or in just causes, symbolizing courage, martial valor, and zeal in defense of the Christian faith or for justice. It’s a planet of heroes — his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida (killed during the Second Crusade), and Joshua, Judas Maccabeus, Charlemagne, Roland, William of Orange, Renouard, Godfrey of Bouillon and Robert Guiscard. Mad respect given by him to the “Martian” warrior class from a fellow veteran of both spiritual and physical battle (Dante was a cavalryman at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289).
Two minor points of inquiry: you say he provided “…a meaningful model of reality that situates humanity at the center of a divinely ordered cosmos.” First, perhaps he actually hinted at a more modern astronomical approach (to the solar system) since he placed the (Sun) God at the center of his cosmos (there were Greek astronomers that had explored the theory of a heliocentric system). Second, Earth is the center of his physical universe, but theologically, God is the true center and prime mover of all, including humanity, in his cosmos.
Thanks again for helping to make sense of his ordered but dauntingly complex universe.
Hi Corey - excellent points, all! Yes, the book by Dante's descendent Sperello di Serego Alighieri is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about Dante's cosmology. I used it extensively in a recent research paper I did for a graduate course (of which this post presents only the briefest synopsis of the history and metaphysical ideas I pursued more fully in that work.)
I love your discussion of Dante's depiction of Mars! As a veteran like you, I'm always partial to military history, heroes, great battles etc. :)
To your final point about the sun - you make a very good case and I don't disagree in the least that it's actually God at the center of the universe (symbolically figured as the sun). My statement ("…a meaningful model of reality that situates humanity at the center of a divinely ordered cosmos") is a carry-over from the thesis of my research paper. I was responding in agreement with a critique of modernity/scientism by two scholars who wrote about the displacement of humanity *epistemologically* from the center of the universe: historian John Lukacs (1924-2019) and scientist/philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891-1976). Polanyi writes in his groundbreaking work, "Personal Knowledge" (1962):
"In the Ptolemaic system, as in the cosmogony of the Bible, man was assigned a central position in the universe, from which position he was ousted by Copernicus. Ever since, writers eager to drive the lesson home have urged us, resolutely and repeatedly, to abandon all sentimental egoism, and to see ourselves objectively in the true perspective of time and space...[however] it goes without saying that no one--scientists included--looks at the universe this way, whatever lip-service is given to 'objectivity'."
Lukacs' would agree with this idea and notes that, especially in light of discoveries in quantum physics, we need to restore an anthropocentric view of the universe historically as well as epistemologically in order to signal the impossibility (and undesirability) of separating the knower from the known--which is also a critique of the false Cartesian dichotomy (useful in its day but now collapsing around us) of strict objectivism and subjectivism.
I hope that helps. You can see why I can't get into such details in a short Substack post--at the risk of losing most of my audience, haha--but I really appreciate the opportunity to go deeper into various ideas with interested members of the Substack community like you! Thanks!
Brilliant, Amy. This is running parallel with my developments - the gods stripped of their divinity are nevertheless our relationships with Being. They are the visages of Being, the liminal. Edith Stein said that we in the finite world can know the infinite but only if we have analogies that span both worlds and therefore carry us from the finite to the infinite. I call that access road the liminal world, or the playground of the gods.
Which is why we can never do without poetry or myth. They give language to the liminal world.
Amazing. Thank you Amy. Since I was a student of Literature and History, I think that medieval time reached a point of maximum clarity in the understanding and exposition of the relation between Heaven and Earth and Dante wrote, under God inspiration, the conclusive summary of the time that European population was most close and focus on God. After him, all is humanism. Your writing is really bringing out the importance of this time and in a way that I can offer to people that consider my interests useless or even wrong. Thanks to make difficult concepts easier without compromising their original beauty and loftiness.
Thank you so much Claudia. Your comment makes my day! I've felt and believed all the same things you've written here, and I really value your perspective--especially as a student of Literature/History and an Italian. Buon anno! :)
Buon Anno!
Interesting, I like this piece, but is this an historical explication or a proposal for renewing an outdated cosmology? In short: what do YOU think? How do you square Dante’s vision of the cosmos with our modern understanding of the universe?
Hi Chris, thank you for your excellent and thoughtful question! The short answer is that I've recently spent a lot of time thinking about, researching, and writing about this very topic (in graduate school) and I don't yet have a solid answer! (Which is partly why I continue to write about it...)
Scientifically speaking--and this would require an entire article to explain--whether our solar system is heliocentric or geocentric (according to the Tychonic system, not the Ptolemaic) is a matter of perspective. From the basis of our experience as humans, though, living on *this* planet and seeing the whole cosmos from an anthropocentric perspective, I'm in agreement with historian John Lukacs (1924-2019) and scientist/philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) who say that we need a renewed epistemology (the study of knowing) and historical consciousness that places man once more at the center of the cosmos, rather than some arbitrary and artificially "objective" position removed from our actual experience. Whatever model of the universe is currently in fashion, what we experience *phenomenologically* is the sun rising in the east, setting in the west, and the fixed constellations revolving around us. That is enough for me, humanly speaking.
In the end, I take consolation in C.S. Lewis's famous Epilogue in "The Discarded Image" in which he reminds us that all these models of the universe are just that--models. He writes,
"I have made no serious effort to hide the fact that the old [medieval] Model delights me as I believe it delighted our ancestors. Few constructions of the imagination seem to me to have combined splendour, sobriety, and coherence in the same degree. It is possible that some readers have long been itching to remind me that it had a serious defect; it was not true.
"I agree. It was not true. But I would like to end by saying that this charge can no longer have exactly the same sort of weight for us that it would have had in the nineteenth century. We then claimed, as we still claim, to know much more about the real universe than the medievals did; and hoped, as we still hope, to discover yet more truths about it in the future. But the meaning of the words, 'know' and 'truth' in this context has begun to undergo a certain change."
This change is epistemological as much as scientific and I don't claim to have any answers (that's for people much smarter than me!) I'm just trying to widen my imaginative vision by exploring and better understanding the inherited ideas that have shaped it. Thanks again for your curiosity, Chris. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year; if only it had started without the carnage. Tragic and infuriating.
One of the best references I’ve found to make sense of Dante’s cosmos (which can surely induce vertigo) is “The Sun and the Other Stars of Dante Alighieri — A Cosmographic Journey Through the Divina Commedia.” It’s written by two Italian astrophysicists. One, Sperello di Serego Alighieri, is a descendant of Dante. There’s a fascinating 2023 interview (podcast and transcript) at Plough.com about the book (the interviewer described it as the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” to Dante’s cosmography.) The book describes the historical setting, astronomy before Dante, and then offers a detailed tour of Dante’s parallel universes and two orders of experience (the physical and the spiritual). The podcast interviewer (Susannah Black) aptly described the completeness of Dante’s perspective as a “synoptic and complete vision” “because he brings classical myth and Biblical reference and scientific observation together in these incredibly condensed ways.” The totality and coherence of his cosmological vision is astounding — interweaving philosophy, astronomy, astrology, theology, culture, politics, and history. Richard L. Poss, in his paper “Stars and Spirituality in the Cosmology of Dante’s Commedia,” cites Professor Giuseppe Mazzotta describing the fusion as a 'translation of Beatitude into astronomical terms'.”
One interesting and pretty cheeky initiative (for the Middle Ages) was making Beatrice his astronomy teacher and coach. In Canto II of Paradiso, in the course of her querying him about the meaning of spots on the moon, she confidently explains that his usual ways of attaining knowledge, through his senses and his reason, are inadequate for grasping the spiritual realities of the heavens. She says “Now, forasmuch as, following the senses, Thou seest that reason has short wings.” Thus the need for a novel and nuanced approach to the fusion of Christian theology and pagan cosmology.
I’m particularly partial to his depiction of Mars (traditionally associated, of course, with war and aggression in Roman mythology) — he portrays it as the heavenly sphere reflecting not just physical battle, but also spiritual warfare, with the Holy Warriors who fought for their faith or in just causes, symbolizing courage, martial valor, and zeal in defense of the Christian faith or for justice. It’s a planet of heroes — his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida (killed during the Second Crusade), and Joshua, Judas Maccabeus, Charlemagne, Roland, William of Orange, Renouard, Godfrey of Bouillon and Robert Guiscard. Mad respect given by him to the “Martian” warrior class from a fellow veteran of both spiritual and physical battle (Dante was a cavalryman at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289).
Two minor points of inquiry: you say he provided “…a meaningful model of reality that situates humanity at the center of a divinely ordered cosmos.” First, perhaps he actually hinted at a more modern astronomical approach (to the solar system) since he placed the (Sun) God at the center of his cosmos (there were Greek astronomers that had explored the theory of a heliocentric system). Second, Earth is the center of his physical universe, but theologically, God is the true center and prime mover of all, including humanity, in his cosmos.
Thanks again for helping to make sense of his ordered but dauntingly complex universe.
Hi Corey - excellent points, all! Yes, the book by Dante's descendent Sperello di Serego Alighieri is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about Dante's cosmology. I used it extensively in a recent research paper I did for a graduate course (of which this post presents only the briefest synopsis of the history and metaphysical ideas I pursued more fully in that work.)
I love your discussion of Dante's depiction of Mars! As a veteran like you, I'm always partial to military history, heroes, great battles etc. :)
To your final point about the sun - you make a very good case and I don't disagree in the least that it's actually God at the center of the universe (symbolically figured as the sun). My statement ("…a meaningful model of reality that situates humanity at the center of a divinely ordered cosmos") is a carry-over from the thesis of my research paper. I was responding in agreement with a critique of modernity/scientism by two scholars who wrote about the displacement of humanity *epistemologically* from the center of the universe: historian John Lukacs (1924-2019) and scientist/philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891-1976). Polanyi writes in his groundbreaking work, "Personal Knowledge" (1962):
"In the Ptolemaic system, as in the cosmogony of the Bible, man was assigned a central position in the universe, from which position he was ousted by Copernicus. Ever since, writers eager to drive the lesson home have urged us, resolutely and repeatedly, to abandon all sentimental egoism, and to see ourselves objectively in the true perspective of time and space...[however] it goes without saying that no one--scientists included--looks at the universe this way, whatever lip-service is given to 'objectivity'."
Lukacs' would agree with this idea and notes that, especially in light of discoveries in quantum physics, we need to restore an anthropocentric view of the universe historically as well as epistemologically in order to signal the impossibility (and undesirability) of separating the knower from the known--which is also a critique of the false Cartesian dichotomy (useful in its day but now collapsing around us) of strict objectivism and subjectivism.
I hope that helps. You can see why I can't get into such details in a short Substack post--at the risk of losing most of my audience, haha--but I really appreciate the opportunity to go deeper into various ideas with interested members of the Substack community like you! Thanks!