Out of the Dark Wood: Dante's Relevance for Our Time

Mar 16, 2021 707

Thu, March 25, 2021. 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM CDT. The Italian Cultural & Community Center, 1101 Milford St, Houston, TX 77006. Tickets here. March 25th - also known as Dantedí - is the national day to commemorate Dante and the beginning of his journey to the afterlife in the Divine Comedy. 2021 also marks the 700th anniversary of the poet's death.

This lecture accompanies Dante on his three-part pilgrimage highlighting what he experienced and learned, and how we can benefit from what he tells us in this great work of art. Synopsis: Society is sharply divided. Citizens are losing faith in their civic institutions. There is wide corruption in the Church. Does this sound familiar? It was the state of Dante's society. He had the highest ideals for his beloved Florence and for the Church.

But for his efforts he was exiled from the city he gave his life to. During his exile he composed perhaps the greatest poem in world history, The Divine Comedy. It opens in a Dark Wood of menace and confusion. The pilgrim Dante, accompanied by friends from the past and from heaven, journeys through Hell to witness the greatest evils in the world. He climbs out of Hell to Mount Purgatory, and tells us how to reconstruct a tattered life. Finally, he arrives in Paradise. What does he see there? The great hope for a life and a world in disarray and crisis.

This lecture is presented by Professor Dominic Aquila - a tenured professor of history and director of assessment and institutional effectiveness at the University of St. Thomas and it is in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Houston.

SOURCE: Italian Cultural & Community Center

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