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Dante's Divine Comedy

Dante's Divine Comedy

By: Mark Vernon
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About this listen

I invite you to experience the odyssey, by accompanying me as I discuss each canto. My book, Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide For The Spiritual Journey, is published by Angelico Press for the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death on 13th September 2021. For more information see - www.markvernon.com

© 2025 Dante's Divine Comedy Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
Episodes
  • Inferno 1

    Inferno 1
    Jan 24 2020

    Dante frightened by his plight, terrorised by strange beasts, discovers a guide.

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    16 mins
  • Inferno 2

    Inferno 2
    Jan 25 2020

    Dante wavers and Virgil reveals why he is here.

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    21 mins
  • Inferno 3

    Inferno 3
    Jan 25 2020

    Dante and Virgil pass through the gates of hell and enter the vestibule to encounter anxious souls.
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    22 mins
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An insightful guide to Dante’s poem. I highly recommend that listeners alternate between listening to a canto and then Vernon’s commentary.

Illuminates Dante’s work

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Absolutely fell in love with this. Oh and dear Beatrice the ultimate anima figure! Amen

Fantastic!

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This should be made more clear for any subscribers. A believer and admirer can still take a critical eye, which is entirely absent here.

Dante is creating a narrative, and one in which he is blessed by God. Just because he says something, doesn’t make it true or honest. He’s an author and a person from the 1300s with frankly limited education and worldly scope, not a prophet or self-help guru.

Dante was a politician, who was on the losing side over a what most modern readers would consider a pretty petty religious squabble. He wasn’t sent to the gulag and minutes from execution like Dostoyevsky. He swanned around at his friends’ palaces. So let’s keep that in mind when he discusses his suffering life. He is also clearly driven by personal animus in many sections. He is using the written word as polemic against his enemies.

Also, as a modern woman, I’d say his use of Beatrice is creepy AF. As someone familiar with literature, I understand that he is writing in the tradition of courtly love. Regardless, it is weird. And there is a lot of weird in the DC. I wish Vernon engaged with it.

For ppl who aren’t fully able to follow the text, the explanations and call outs here are strong, even though I sometimes vehemently disagreed.

Christian theological, NOT literary analysis

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