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Canto 28
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
Beatrice can tell that Dante still has many questions about what she’s been telling him. She explains more about the nature of creation—that God didn’t create in order to add anything to himself (for he lacks nothing), but instead so that his own light would shine back to him. The angels were his first creation, simultaneously with the heavens and primordial matter. All this happened within eternity, before time itself came to be. Beatrice also distinguishes between the creation of “act” (which corresponds to matter) and “potency” (angels) and the combination of these two things (the heavens).
Beatrice once again assumes the task of being Dante’s theology teacher, here delving into complex matters of Aristotle’s philosophy and Aquinas’s theology. Again, it’s less critical to understand these abstract ideas than to notice the central point about God’s providence. which animates creation: creation everywhere displays God’s goodness and is therefore an expression of God’s generosity.
Themes
Beatrice goes on to describe the nature of humanity’s fall, which was the result of Satan’s arrogance. The rest of the angels, however, continued to acknowledge God’s goodness and so remain in Heaven, their understanding raised to comprehend God and their wills fully fixed on him. On earth, some theology teachers speculate that angels possess memory as well as understanding and will, but Beatrice dismisses this idea, explaining that because angels’ sight never wavers from God, they have no need for memory.
Satan’s rebellion against God resulted in his fall (he was created along with the rest of the angels) and ultimately that of humanity. The rest of the angels continued to contemplate God uninterruptedly. Beatrice argues that angels’ capacities differ from those of human beings because the nature of their existence and contemplation of God is likewise different.
Themes
Beatrice says that speculation is blameworthy because it’s usually due to “love of showy thoughts,” yet even speculation isn’t as bad as those who willfully twist the meaning of Scripture and preach foolishness to the people, who don’t know any better. In closing, Beatrice invites Dante once more to reflect on the diversity of the angels, as they all differently reflect God’s single, eternal light.
Beatrice lays heaviest blame on theological scholars and preachers who advance trendy ideas instead of feeding the people with the basic truths of Scripture. She distinguishes between speculation that inflates a preacher’s pride and knowledge that spurs people toward God. Beatrice circles back to where she began, with an emphasis on God’s love variously expressed throughout his creation.
Themes
