Dante and the Blessed Virgin

About this book

Dante and the Blessed Virgin is distinguished philosopher Ralph McInernys eloquent reading of one of western literatures most famous works by a Catholic writer. The book provides Catholic readers new to Dantes The Divine Comedy (or Commedia) 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 the Commedia and she is found at the end in the magnificent closing cantos of the Paradiso. McInerny also discusses Dantes Vita Nuova where Mary is present as the object of the young Beatrices 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 Dantes work for the first time as well as those who value the work of Ralph McInerny.