Pub Theology this sunday

Pub Theology meets this Sunday, July 5 at 4:00 pm at Point Remove. John Cotton will be talking about Dante's Commedia (commonly known as the Divine Comedy). 
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Enjoy this preview from John on one of the fascinating insights he will highlight in his talk:

"I became aware of a surprising resonance between Dante’s poetry and Islamic literature. Indeed, there has been a vigorous debate over the last century about whether Dante’s Commedia was influenced – directly or indirectly – by Islamic eschatological traditions, especially the Mi’raj (Muhammad’s night journey and ascension). The debate evolved from early speculation, through the Catholic scholar Miguel Asín Palacios’s explosive 1919 thesis, to the discovery of [The Book of Muhammad's Ladder] in 1949. which intensified rather than resolved the dispute. The controversy reveals deeper questions about medieval cultural exchange and the place of Arabic thought within the so-called Western tradition.

Dante uses falconry as an allegory of desire by portraying the soul’s longing for God as a falcon’s training: wild impulses are gradually disciplined, redirected, and transformed into a higher, obedient love. Scholars have explored the intercultural influences, particularly from Islamic traditions, that shaped Dante's understanding of falconry and its symbolic potential."

You may wish to review this Wikipedia article and references ahead of our discussion.