Walking With Dante

At last, Beatrice explains how you can make up for broken or unfulfilled vows: Just give back 150% of the original worth of the thing vowed.
But what happens when the thing vowed can't be valued . . . or breaks every scale.
Her answer ropes in both the one who vows and the church who can offer an out to the vow.
In other words, Dante is setting the terms of canon law.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this tough passage about vows, free will, and the out for what you've broken.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:15] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 34 - 63. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:56] An examination of the small, gritty details in this difficult passage about making up for broken or unfulfilled vows.
[17:32] Food as crucial imagery in PARADISO.
[20:36] Three ways out of unfulfilled vows: the eternal light in all things, God's consent, and Beatrice's 150% accounting scheme.
[23:14] Dante's possible attempt to make up for his broken vow to Beatrice.
[24:53] Vows and the possible threat of the Avignon papacy.
[28:09] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto V, lines 34 - 63.

Beatrice begins the final part of her argument with the premise that the freedom of the will is the greatest gift given to angels and humans.
She then offers one out to her rather strict notion of ethical behavior—some vows may not be valid—and proceeds to claim that the will wills its own loss while making a vow.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the apotheosis of free will in Beatrice's final discourse in the sphere of the moon.
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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:33] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 17 - 33. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:24] The greatest gift is free will--thus, evil is a moral reality, not a metaphysical or an ontological reality.
[09:17] The will wills its loss in a vow, an act of self-limitation (if God so agrees).
[13:51] You can't climb over the fence of your vow.
[16:16] The will may well be paramount--unless a poet gets involved.
[19:16] Rereading PARADISO, Canto V, lines 17 - 33.

Dante wants to know if someone (who?) can make an unfulfilled vow good with other good works?
Beatrice begins her answer with a tightly woven passage that illustrate a high degree of poetic skill . . . and then seems to acknowledge her own role in starting a canto of the poem.
Dante's question remains curious? To or for whom was the vow made? And how is it broken?
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the meta-beginning of the fifth canto of PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:20] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 1 - 16. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:15] Rhetorical strategies: fire, sight, and love tightly interwoven (along with a mixed metaphor!).
[09:05] Fire, sight, and love: the metaphoric crux for the theological idea of the vestige of eternal light in all things.
[13:14] The root of the problem of unfulfilled vows: potential litigation in heaven's court.
[18:04] A meta-canto possibly about the poet's unfulfilled vows . . . to Beatrice, yes, but perhaps also to his readers.
[24:16] Rereading PARADISO, Canto V, lines 1- 16.

Beatrice has answered the pilgrim's two unasked questions . . . but she doesn't yet know the one he really wants to ask.
Having heard her doctrines about free will and unfulfilled vows, the pilgrim Dante winds himself up through flattery and intellectual curiosity to ask perhaps a personal question about his own unfulfilled vows.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the ways Beatrice's discussions of free will have only caused the pilgrim Dante more problems, even as they've satisfied his intellect.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:35] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[04:20] The journey of the intellect is the journey of the desire that arises from doubt.
[12:37] The pilgrim Dante flatters Beatrice . . . maybe too much.
[17:43] Who is addressed in this passage? Isn't it too much to attribute to Beatrice?
[20:26] The poet mixes the metaphors to further push truth into poetic space.
[22:51] Dante asks a personal question about his unfulfilled vow . . . maybe.
[26:24] Beatrice, Francesca, Dante, and Nebuchadnezzar.
[30:11] Rereading PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 115 - 142.

Beatrice launches into a subpoint about free will, one derived from her larger discussion of culpability.
In this passage, she refines exactly why Piccarda and Constance are charged with breaking their vows in the sphere of the moon: They may have wanted to keep their vows, but that wanting doesn't negate their actions.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this bit of Scholastic reasoning that shores up an uncomfortable if orthodox notion of the will.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:33] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 91 - 114. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[04:07] My translated lines violate the incredible concision of Dante's Florentine poetry.
[06:36] The central problem: Can there be dissension among those in heaven?
[10:58] The notion of a first truth presumes second and third truths--and what are those?
[14:05] Beatrice offers an argument about the absolute will and the conditional will that is almost plagiarized from Aristotle and Aquinas.
[23:02] Beatrice and Dante the poet hold their orthodox fence firm.
[29:07] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 91 - 114.