Dante se visioen van God in 'n insluitend historiese konteks

Abstract

Starting from the historical context of Dante’s vision of God as expressed in Paradiso XXXIII (Medieval Europe, against the backdrop of Western classical tradition, the Bible and post-Biblical orthodox Christianity), the article ventures into suggesting a framework for understanding Dante’s vision in which human history (including church history) is seen as partaking in a larger history, comprising cosmic history and the theogonic history of God. In this framework, the questions concerning the historical determination of Dante’s vision and the truth quality of that vision are seen in terms of an open-ended process in which all things are continuously reflecting each other and the divine light. In this process of reflection, the distinctions between “made” and “received”, “fiction” and “truth” lose their sharp edges. Dante may be read as child of his tradition, at the same time explorer of nature, creative mythopoetic genius, and part of a universal community of those who “see” the divine light: source and sum of all.