Dante and the Blessed Virgin [Hardcover]

Dante and the Blessed Virginis distinguished philosopher Ralph McInerny's eloquent reading of one of western literature's most famous works by a Catholic writer. The book provides Catholic readers new to Dante'sThe Divine Comedy(orCommedia) with a concise companion volume. McInerny argues that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to Dante. She is behind the scenes at the very beginning of theCommedia, and she is found at the end in the magnificent closing cantos of theParadiso. McInerny also discusses Dante'sVita Nuova, where Mary is present as the object of the young Beatrice's devotion.

McInerny draws from a diverse group of writers throughout this book, including Plato, Aristotle, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, and George Santayana, among others. It is St. Thomas, however, to whom McInerny most often turns, and this book also provides an accessible introduction to Thomistic moral philosophy focusing on the appetites, the ordering of goods, the distinction between the natural and the supernatural orders, the classification of capital vices and virtues, and the nature of the theological virtues. This engagingly written book will serve as a source of inspiration and devotion for anyone approaching Dante's work for the first time as well as those who value the work of Ralph McInerny.

"Dante was a literary genius with a profound understanding of St. Thomas Aquinas and thephilosophia perennisthat structured and permeated theDivina Commedia. Who better to help us get beyond the (brilliant) surface to the depths of Dante than the most literarily genial of Thomas' twentieth (and twenty-first) century disciples, the indefatigable Ralph McInerny? Dante needed guides, from Vergil to Beatrice, to reach the summit ofParadiso. Fortunately, we have Ralph McInerny to accompany us on the same journey." --Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., Founder and Editor, Ignatius PrlÌ