The (Maybe?) Supremacy Of The Will: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 58 - 75

Walking With Dante

The still-unknown shade on the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory rounds out his answer to Virgil's questions with some shocking revelations: The souls in Purgatory seem to declare the moment they're cleansed. The will is the only proof that their penance is complete. They stand up. They choose to move on.

Or do they? Is it that simple? Or theologically explosive? This passage is easy to overstate, particularly in the modern world. But there are actually at least two safeguards on this notion of free will in the soul's answer.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the theological second half of the soul's answer to Virgil's questions.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:02] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 58 - 75. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:13] The supremacy of the will (and of interiority).

[10:10] The supremacy of divine justice (and a counterweight in the argument).

[14:28] The turn to the speaker's autobiography.

[17:06] The pilgrim as a third in an otherwise simple dialogue between two.

[19:31] Rereading the entire answer to Virgil's questions: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 40 - 75.