Purgatorio with Heidi White

In this episode of The Classical Mind, Fr. Wesley Walker and Dr. Junius Johnson welcome back Heidi White to explore the middle canticle of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Purgatorio. Is Purgatory “cosmic extra innings” or a “cosmic decontamination chamber” for the saved? How do Inferno and Purgatorio differ? Give a listen as Heidi, Junius, and Wesley discuss the moral and structural architecture of Mount Purgatory, specifically the “Order of Love” (ordo amoris) that governs the seven terraces and how Dante organizes the capital vices.

Endnotes:

Heidi: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Junius: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Wesley: “Ash Wednesday” by T.S. Eliot

I

Because I do not hope to turn again

Because I do not hope

Because I do not hope to turn

Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope

I no longer strive to strive towards such things

(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)