Evening under Lamplight Podcast

Beatrice enrols Dante for his final exams, part one, examined by St Peter on the nature of Faith. Our challenge: how to make this question come alive for us today.

Dante adjusts his vision here on the eighth sphere, briefly seeing the Source of Divine Light, and Mary, and all the saved souls in heaven coming down to him. It's hard for him to describe to us, but we understand.

Dante meets St Benedict here on Saturn, the region dedicated to the contemplative life, and then rises even higher, up to his birthsign, Gemini. And from there, he looks back to contemplate just how small, compared to everything else, our Earth actually is.

Now on the sphere of Saturn, a place of auterity, and a love that rises above the personal, perhaps a place of preparation for things higher up, up that golden ladder that features in this place.

Who are these just rulers here on Jupiter, and how does justice connect with humility, and in what way do the "violent bear it away"? All this and more.

Will someone who has never had the chance to learn about salvation but nevertheless lives a completely righteous life - will this person be damned to Hell because there's been no official baptism or profession of faith? Is this justice? That's what this canto sets out to answer, or at least to discuss.

We have our final words and final dance on Mars and then ascend to Jupiter, the home of Justice, with a whole different kind of verbal dance put on for Dante.

More from Cacciaguida, Dante's great-great-grandfather here on the sphere of Mars: the climactic and poignant revelation of Dante's exile from Florence, and his commission not to compromise in retelling the truth of what he has seen on this long journey.

More from Cacciaguida, Dante's great-great-grandfather, here on the sphere of Mars, and more about pride, elevation above one's lower self, and a lot more about the state of Florence.

Dante meets his great-great-grandfather on the sphere of Mars, and hears about what an ideal place Florence used to be. It's a canto full of loving courtesy.