The Liturgy of Knowledge in the Heaven of the Sun

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss Dante’s conception of theology and rational thinking through a reading of the cantos of the Heaven of the Sun. I address the hermeneutical challenge of understanding the meaning of the peace which Dante identifies as the main feature of divine science, and I do so by employing liturgical hermeneutics, a methodological approach characteristic of the celebration of Mass. This hermeneutical approach looks simultaneously at the constative content of a text and its performative dimension and emphasises the importance of not concealing but taking into account the unavoidable personal dimension of any hermeneutical or intellectual activity. In this way, I challenge the conclusion that the reconciliation of the Wise Spirits is merely and only a textual reality and therefore a beautiful, poetic lie, and I instead show how Dante’s poetic depiction has serious implications for our use and understanding of rational thought. His representation does not rest on the application of the principle of non-contradiction as the ultimate foundation of reality and rational thinking: in Dante’s Paradiso, this abstract principle is replaced by a living reality, and the inner life of the Trinity is shown as being the true foundation for any possible knowledge and reality.