Dante on Virtuous Pagans

By |2023-10-04T17:33:44-05:00October 4th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Reason, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Virgil, Virtue|

It was there, in the first circle of Hell, that I first understood what it meant to be a virtuous pagan. It meant to be led by the dim but true light of reason, to seek continually after the higher things, to pursue with courage and devotion a life of virtue. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if [...]

Virgil on Courage

By |2023-08-07T21:41:56-05:00August 7th, 2023|Categories: Aeneas, Character, Heroism, Imagination, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Virgil|

Courage is found in unexpected places. It is not the sole province of soldiers, nor does it find its only fulfillment in the vanquishing of enemies. Indeed, courage manifests itself most powerfully, not in a single deed of valor, but in a lifetime of endurance. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the [...]

Homer’s Advice for Husbands and Wives

By |2023-04-25T15:26:18-05:00April 25th, 2023|Categories: Homer, Imagination, Letters From Dante Series, Timeless Essays|

You teach your students that the men of the past looked upon their wives as chattel, that they saw them as possessions rather than as people of value and worth. How deeply mistaken you are; how far from the truth. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the other great poets of ancient [...]

Dante on the Beatific Vision

By |2019-10-29T20:47:24-05:00October 29th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Imagination, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors|

To achieve the Beatific Vision of Plato and his pre-Christian heirs is to move to a place of absolute serenity, removed from the passions and emotions of our world. That is not what I encountered in paradise. Far from a place of stoic calm, heaven overflowed with ecstasy and jubilation. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, [...]

Dante on Hierarchy

By |2019-10-24T14:54:04-05:00October 24th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Imagination, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors|

Rather than seek to create an artificial equality that violates God’s diversity of gifts, find your own unique place in the celestial hierarchy. And once you find your assigned part, take pride in it, without envying those above you in the hierarchy or condescending to those below. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, [...]

Dante on Jealousy

By |2019-10-14T22:17:54-05:00October 14th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Imagination, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors|

Too many of your theologians and preachers have rejected an aspect of God that is made clear in the scriptures: our God is a jealous God. And you’ve rejected it, not because you have disproved it, but because you are embarrassed by it. You simply cannot imagine that God could have anything in common with [...]

Dante on Gifts

By |2019-09-20T12:49:48-05:00September 24th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Imagination, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors|

Not only has your age been graced with many gifts and talents; you have been showered with a wealth of instruments and opportunities for the doing of good. Nevertheless, in the midst of plenty, you continue to bury them under the ground rather than invest them in and for God’s Kingdom. You must relearn what [...]

Dante on Sin

By |2019-09-20T14:16:30-05:00September 17th, 2019|Categories: Dante, Great Books, Imagination, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors|

In our mortal lives, we can often hide the desiccated state of our souls from others; in the afterlife, we can no longer hide from others what we truly are inside. Let go of your rebelliousness and disobedience, my friends, before it is too late, before you find yourself circling the path of futility. Author’s Introduction: [...]

Dante on Lust

By |2019-09-09T22:56:39-05:00September 9th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Love, Morality, Sexuality, Virtue|

It is both seemly and right to feel love and even erotic passion, but when such feelings are taken to an improper extreme or directed toward an improper object, they grow twisted and perverse and morph into the sin of lust. We will have done significant damage to ourselves. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, [...]

Dante on Citizenship

By |2019-12-09T16:41:28-06:00August 28th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Citizenship, Dante, Great Books, Heaven, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors|

I could never again go home to Florence. Still, out of that dark beginning, God brought great good. What he allowed me to learn on my feet was a simple but life-altering truth: that my primary citizenship is not in Florence, nor in Rome, nor in any other earthly city. My true citizenship is in [...]

Isaiah on Hope

By |2019-08-20T22:41:46-05:00August 20th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Hope, Israel, Justice, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Senior Contributors, Truth|

Hope is not only conveyed through the images; hope rests in them. The promised visions shape a future that God will eventually make real: or, better, that he will make concrete in human time and space, for they were already real when God revealed them to me. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, [...]

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