Previous
Canto 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Paradiso, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Earthly and Heavenly Justice
Creation and God’s Providence
God’s Character and Will
Vision, Knowledge, and the Pursuit of God
Language and the Ineffable
Summary
Analysis
Dante and Beatrice next ascend to the sphere of the sun, which completely surpasses Dante’s capacity to describe. Flares of light circle around the two of them, as if in a dance. Stopping, one of these lights introduces himself to Dante as Thomas Aquinas. He identifies the soul next to him as his former teacher, Albert the Great.
As light has symbolized divine illumination throughout Paradiso, the sun here symbolizes the wisdom of God himself, and its sphere is accordingly inhabited by some of the Church’s brightest intellectuals. Although the figures in this sphere are known for having written and taught on theological subjects, in Heaven their beauty is beyond the power of words to describe—suggesting that earthly language can only gesture in a limited way toward God. Aquinas, one of the most significant theologians in the Catholic Church and one whose theology permeates Dante’s thought, orients Dante to his surroundings.
Themes
Thomas Aquinas introduces another 10 souls to Dante. They include Gratian, Peter Lombard, Boethius, the Venerable Bede, and Richard of St. Victor. One soul, Siger, is a philosopher with whom Aquinas disputed on Earth. The souls sing an ineffably beautiful song together.
Each of these figures was in some way significant for the Church’s intellectual heritage. Gratian was a codifier of the Church’s law; Peter Lombard an important medieval theologian; Boethius was a sixth-century philosopher executed by a pagan king; Bede an English historian; and Richard was a writer on the mystical life. Despite their differences in character, emphasis, and even specific ideas, all these figures are able to sing harmoniously in Heaven, suggesting that the intellect finds its fulfillment only in Heaven, and that differently inclined intellects are all reaching toward the same eternal truths.
Themes
