July 16 – August 27, 2025

A Spiritual Journey Through Dante’s “Divine Comedy”

July 16 – August 27, 2025
Guided message board discussion and
Six live Zoom meetings:
Wednesdays, 8-9 pm ET / 5-6 pm PT
Max Participants: 20
Cost: $100

Have you ever wanted to read Dante’s “Divine Comedy” but wished you had a learning community and a trustworthy guide to accompany you on the way? Here’s your chance.

In his apostolic letter “Candor Lucis Aeternae” on the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth, Pope Francis wrote:

“Dante today — if we can presume to speak for him — does not wish merely to be read, commented on, studied and analyzed. Rather, he asks to be heard and even imitated; he invites us to become his companions on the journey. Today, too, he wants to show us the route to happiness, the right path to live a fully human life, emerging from the dark forest in which we lose our bearings and the sense of our true worth. Dante’s journey and his vision of life beyond death are not just a story to be told; they are more than the account of a personal experience, however exceptional.”

“The Divine Comedy” is of course a literary masterpiece, but it is also a spiritual masterpiece. It reminds us what we should strive toward and of the virtues that help us in that journey and the vices that hinder us. By reading the poem, we learn a bit about ourselves.

The experience will be facilitated by Professor Scott D. Moringiello of DePaul University, who once blogged the whole “Divine Comedy” for Commonweal.

Course Format

Required Texts

About the Instructor

The course’s message board will open on Wednesday, July 16, and our initial Zoom meeting will be Wednesday, July 23 (8-9 pm ET) for a discussion of the first assignment. Each week, Professor Moringiello will write a brief post giving context for the week’s reading (2-3 cantos a day), which will be available on a private message board. Participants are encouraged to post their replies. Our hour-long Zoom meetings will take up threads from the participants’ and the instructor’s posts. Participants will read the Hollander translation of the text. Meetings (Wednesdays, 8-9 pm ET) and Assignments:
  1. July 23: Beginning through “Inferno” 21
  2. July 30: Through “Inferno” 34
  3. August 6: Through “Purgatorio” 21
  4. August 13: Through “Purgatorio” 33
  5. August 20: Through “Paradiso” 21
  6. August 27: Through “Paradiso” 33

Participants are responsible for obtaining copies of the Jean and Robert Hollander translation of “The Divine Comedy,” which is available in three separate volumes:
  1. “The Inferno”
  2. “Purgatorio”
  3. “Paradiso”

(Purchasing used copies or borrowing the volumes from your local library are more cost-effective ways to obtain the books.)
Scott D. Moringiello is associate professor and chair in the Department of Catholic Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He is the author of “The Rhetoric of Faith: Irenaeus and the Structure of the ‘Adversus Haereses.’” At DePaul, he teaches classes in history, literature and Catholic theology.

Art: “Dante and His Poem,” Domenico di Michelino (public domain)

Register for this Event

A Spiritual Journey Through Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is full; to join a waiting list email medialab@jesuits.org.

Contributed by:

Scott D. Moringiello

Scott D. Moringiello is associate professor and chair in the Department of Catholic Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He is the author of “The Rhetoric of Faith: Irenaeus and the Structure of the ‘Adversus Haereses.’” At DePaul, he teaches classes in history, literature and Catholic theology.