2pm until 3.30pm, followed by tea.
venue: Pusey House, St Giles
Lent is the appropriate season of the Church year to read Dante’s Comedy, in part because his journey takes place at the end of Lent, from Maundy Thursday to Easter Wednesday. Even more, however, because as we travel with Dante we become Lenten pilgrims alongside him. We learn—and lament—the disorder of sin in Hell, we recognize—and accept—the long process of sanctification in Purgatory, and we witness—and desire—the contented harmony of Paradise. This lecture will introduce Dante Alighieri and will consider his Comedy as a work of wisdom literature intended to teach, delight, inform, and reform those readers willing to adopt the posture of the pilgrim alongside its medieval Florentine author.
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Brian is a DPhil student in Christian Ethics, Oxford, researching the work of Hugh of St. Victor and Philip Melanchthon on education and the intellectual appetite. He is the author of The Potter’s Rib, a book that explores the history, theology, and practice of mentoring for pastoral formation.