As part of the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, the Pontifical Council for Culture, in collaboration with the Università degli Studi Roma Tre, the Pontificia Commissione Dantesca, the Fondazione per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e Artistiche della Chiesa, and the Fondazione Giancarlo Pallavicini, has organized an international conference entitled “Dante and the Great Eschatological Questions.
Among the many events and initiatives commemorating the Italian poet, the conference is distinguished by an approach to Dante that allows us to understand his poetry in relation to the theological, philosophical, poetic, and historical context in which it was born.
The conference will be attended by scholars from all over the world, and known to the scientific community for the excellence of their research in different areas of knowledge including theological and biblical studies, linguistics and philology, philosophy and art history. It will thus be possible to grasp the depth of the poetry of the Commedia, which for Dante is never reducible to literary fiction, but which indeed feeds on a vigorous tension in an effort to communicate, through beauty and the expressive power of poetic language, the truths of faith and thought that are typical of the era in which Dante lived and which he appropriated in a surprising and personal way.
The conference will be divided into three sessions, aimed at illuminating three major themes present in the secular tradition in which Dante was formed: the divinely inspired vision, the resurrection of souls and bodies at the end of time, and angelology. Each of these themes has its foundation in the Bible and comes to Dante through the mediation of works of biblical exegesis and philosophical and theological reflections matured in the silence of monastic cloisters, the Scholastic tradition, and within the mendicant orders. The investigation of these themes and of the works that were known to Dante will allow access to Dante's poetry thanks to a unique viewpoint that is often overlooked in studies of the Commedia.
In this way, the Pontifical Council for Culture intends to honor the memory of Dante, who in the eyes of his contemporaries presented himself as the poet of one vision, and who for us today is a witness and vivid guardian of the glorious roots of our civilization.
During the conference there will also be the recitation of some passages from the Commedia by the Compagnia del Teatro Libero di Rebibbia.
The conference will be held in Rome, on 25 and 26 November 2021, at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre.
The conference program and streaming details are available here.