Paradiso, Canto 28

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Summary

Dante, gazing into the eyes ofBeatrice, becomes aware of a light reflected in them. He looks behind and sees the light of God as an infinitely small but dazzlingly brilliant point, encircled by nine radiant rings. Beatrice explains the relationship of these circles to the movement of the heavens and identifies them as the three hierarchies or nine orders of angels.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• Dante describes Beatrice as the one who “imparadises my mind” (“ ‘mparadisa la mia mente”). What does this tell us about Beatrice and about Dante’s state as he reaches the Primum Mobile? What does it mean to “know” God?
• How does Dante describe Beatrice’s eyes in line 11-12? How is this an echo of Dante’s conversation with Adam in canto 26?
• Why does Dante’s entire perspective of the universe change as he sees the universe from the Primum Mobile? How does the theological vision of the cosmos convey a different meaning to things than the sensible vision? What is the correspondence between the theological and the sensible cosmos (28.64-72)?
• How does Beatrice define beatitude (28.109-113)?
• Why do you think Beatrice describes the angelic intelligence that oversees our terrestrial sphere as “Angels at their play” (“d’Angelici ludi”)? How does that correspond to the theme of holy playfulness that we have seen since Purgatorio? How does Beatrice’s discourse on the angelic hierarchies explain the importance of the stars for Dante?

Paradiso, Canto 28 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Primum Mobile: See Canto xxvii, under Images.

The Point of Light: The light of God and of the angelic rings which circle it are first seen by Dante reflected in the eyes of Beatrice, just as, in the Pageant of the Church in the Garden ofEden (Purg. xxxi) he saw mirrored in their range” the double nature of the Incarnate Love, “now in the one, now in the other guise”, that is, now as wholly divine, now as wholly human. He could not then see the two as one; now, in a prelude to the Beatific Vision, he beholds the immateriality and indivisible unity of God. The allegorical relationship of Beatrice to the Trinity had been intuitively apprehended by Dante as long ago as the time of the Vita Nuova, when he wrote ... “this Lady was accompanied to the end by the number nine, that men might clearly perceive her to be a nine, that is, a miracle, whose only root is the Holy Trinity”. Now, reflecting the supreme unity of the Trinity, her eyes image the theological demonstrations of the Church concerning the unity of God.

The Nine Orders of Angels: The concept ofthe existence of celestial beings superior to man in power and intelligence, to which tradition has given the name of “angels”, is derived from the apocalyptic writings ofJewish literature and, before that, from Persian and Babylonian personifications. Christian teaching early associated them with the functioning of the heavenly spheres, thereby combining the two notions ofcelestial and astrological influence. Dante accepts the trad¬ itional division of the angels into nine orders, corresponding to the nine spheres ofHeaven, though he seems to have hesitated for a time as to the sequence of their nomenclature. Allegorically, the angels represent the operations of divine Providence, their varied and co¬ ordinated power imaging the whole spiritual order of the universe quickened and sustained by love. Literally, they are God’s agents in the system of secondary causes. 

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