Historical and Personal Background of the Divine Comedy By Joseph Crane Version 1.0 May 2012© This essay is to accompany Between Fortune and Providence: Astrology and the Universe in Dante’s Divine Comedy. What follows is the overview and timeline I wish I had when I first started reading the Divine Comedy. Many commentaries of the Divine Comedy give background historical information‚ usually consisting of a general introduction and brief explanations when specific characters and events
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people to come to their senses. Fear can make a person go from being obscure of what heinous crimes that they are or have committed to being more sheepish than the boy who cried wolf. This story‚ “The Divine Comedy” is based on fear where the reader is taken on a journey like no other. ‘The Divine Comedy’ is the life-long work about a philosophical Christian‚ Dante Alighieri‚ who after being exiled from Florence‚ in the year 1302 Dante commenced to write his views on the repercussion of sinning in the
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St. Augustine and Evil As a Christian Theologian and Philosopher in the first century following the famous council of Nicea‚ Saint Augustine was faced with many problems in faith and God‚ but these things would shape a theology most influential to Christianity today. While the Council of Nicea focused primarily on the person and being of Christ Jesus‚ Augustine was much more interested in the One and all being‚ God. Specifically he was concerned with the problem of evil. The problem of evil is
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Plato vs. Augustine on Memory Assignment: Plato and Augustine use memory in ways that are comparable and incomparable. What is the role or function of memory in their respective psychological writings? What are their differences? If they disagree‚ indicate how they would criticize each other’s work. Augustine begins describing memory as that of a house. He describes it as being a place where images‚ ideas and memories are kept. They can be accesses and stored‚ re-used and deposited as needed
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The Inferno was part of the three-part poem called The Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri. Dante‚who lived from 1265 to 1321‚ was born in Florence to a middle class family and grew up during the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. While Dante was away on a diplomatic trip‚ the Black Guelfs took over Florence and banished Dante from the city. During his life in exile‚ Dante wrote the epic poem The Divine Comedy and finished it shortly before his death. The nine circles
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Saint Augustine was born to a pagan father and a Christian mother. He lived a life of immorality until his early thirties when he suddenly took a new path that would eventually lead to his canonization. According to Augustine he grew up in a life of sin. Though raised as a Christian he did not fully accept the faith that was taught to him by his mother. Instead‚ during his education‚ he became fascinated with the writings of the great philosophers such as Plato. The ideas expressed in the writings
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universally acknowledged faith it is today. Saint Augustine of Hippo‚ a powerful figure in the faith‚ was a church father. Known as Saint Austin‚ or Blessed Augustine‚ He was an acclaimed Christian theologian and philosopher‚ whose works influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western Philosophy. Upon Augustine reading Cicero’s Hortensius‚ it introduced him to philosophical questions that he would ponder all through his life. Augustine became the bishop of Hippo Regius (modern-day Annaba
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In St. Augustine’s book entitled Political Writings‚ one could see that Christianity plays a very important role in his view of politics. His opinion on the morality or lack of morality in politics‚ to me makes it more evident that Christianity persuades his views. Although it seems his writings have become quite well known and admired‚ not everyone fully shared his beliefs. Niccolo Machiavelli‚ for instance‚ seemed to believe in a government that was not driven by morality‚ but more by practicality
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In the Divine Comedy Dante discusses the various levels of hell. They are categorized based on sins of incontinence‚ sins of fraud‚ and sins of violence. Lust and sins of adultery would be categorized as sins of incontinence and would thus be placed in the second circle of hell. This paper will discuss how my ex-boyfriend would be placed in this circle of hell. I began dating my ex-boyfriend‚ Alejandro‚ about three years ago. When my friends and family first met him they constantly told me they
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Statement • Three philosophers‚ St. Augustine‚ Pseudo-Dionysius‚ and St. Thomas Aquinas‚ delivered important assistances to aesthetic theory during the middle Ages. These three philosophers engaged the two main methods to philosophy in the middle Ages. Augustine established thoughts about rhythm that are related to his aesthetic theory‚ particularly the confidence that rhythm initiates with God. This indication of rhythm is explained in Augustine’s De Musica. For Augustine‚ rhythm is indisputable and
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