From Knowing to Doing: The Resurrection of Action

(Paradiso, Canto XIV): King Solomon and ascent to Mars

Laziness leads to poverty;
hard work makes you rich.

~ Solomon, Proverbs

Welcome to Dante Read-Along! ✨

(If this post appears truncated in your inbox you can read it on the web by clicking here. )

Welcome to Dante Book Club, where you and I descend into Hell and Purgatory to be able to ascend to Paradise. Our guide in Paradise is Beatrice, and in this fourteenth Canto of the Paradiso, we ascend from the Sun to Mars. You can find the main page of the read-along right here, reading schedule here, and the list of chat threads here.

In each post you can find a brief summary of the canto, philosophical exercises that you can draw from it, themes, character, and symbolism explanations.

All the wonderful illustrations are done specially for the Dante Read-Along by the one and only Luana Montebello.

This Week’s Circle ⭕️

The Celestial sphere of the Sun, continued - Aquinas finishes speaking - Beatrice intuits Dante’s thoughts and questions - The joyful dance of the circle of souls - King Solomon addresses Dante - These souls will keep their brightness for eternity - Their risen bodies will be able to behold the brilliant light - The ascent to Mars - The lights of the souls on Mars create the shape of a cross - Beatrice grows more beautiful the higher they ascend.

Canto XIV Summary:

Continuing with circular themes that were begun with the souls in the fourth celestial sphere of the sun, Dante used imagery of water rippling to the center and back in a rounded container that had been struck from both the outside and from the center; this indicated the placements of St. Thomas and Beatrice, and the single thought of Dante’s which dropped into the center. The ripples were the correspondence between the wisdom of Thomas, which had just ended, and that of Beatrice, which had just begun.

As Thomas concluded, Beatrice picked up on Dante’s thought, which he had not yet expressed aloud. She explained to St. Thomas the root of another question that was in Dante’s mind: He wanted to know if the brightness that these souls were enveloped in would be with them eternally, and if it would remain so bright after they were restored to their bodies, after the Last Judgement, or if that brightness would be too much to bear for their newly risen bodies; a question familiar to theologians at the time, even Aquinas.

The effulgence that clothes the soul will remain after the restoration of the flesh, but it will not dazzle the bodily eyes; for the glorified body can suffer nothing except through the spirit.¹

The souls in the rings about them were so overjoyed at the trajectory of Dante’s questions that their dance was filled with even more rejoicing.

As dancers in a ring, when drawn and driven
by greater gladness, lift at times their voices
and dance their dance with more exuberance,

so, when they heard that prompt, devout request,
the blessed circles showed new joyousness
in wheeling dance and in amazing song.
xiv.19-24

The beauty of that scene prompted Dante to compare the experience to a fresh and cooling rain in that downpouring of grace that flowed onto him from the singing and dancing souls; death would be as nothing once those graces of God were tasted, becoming nothing to fear. His exaltation is palpable, with the continual advancement of splendor.

Dante praised the Trinity, moving inward and outward through the forms as “One and Two and Three” and “Three and Two and One,” (28-29) and to continue the symbolism, those souls in the sun also sang its praises three times. As well as indicating the Trinity, that “One and Two and Three” also represented one God, the two natures of Christ as God and Man, and the three parts of the Trinity.

A sweet voice came to Dante’s ears from one of the souls in the circle, ready to answer his questions; a voice so sweet that it must have sounded like the angel Gabriel as he came to Mary during the annunciation.

And I could hear within the smaller circle’s
divinest light a modest voice (perhaps
much like the angel’s voice in speech to Mary)

reply: “As long as the festivity
of Paradise shall be, so long shall our
love radiate around us such a garment.”
xiv.34-39

Solomon writing Proverbs (Gustave Doré)

This was King Solomon, about whom we heard so much in the last canto regarding the authenticity of his title as the wisest of men.

He stated that their glorious light would last into eternity, and that there were three elements adding to their unique brightness; the strength of their love, which came from the clarity of their vision, which was a gift bestowed through grace. As for their ability to bear that brightness once they were embodied again, they would be more complete and prepared to see all the greatest brightness of the heavens; in fact, they would glow even more brightly when that time arrived, and the souls even seemed to desire that reclothing with the flesh, in order to shine that much brighter.

The bodiless soul in Heaven has full spiritual happiness; but when clad again in the flesh it will possess bodily happiness as well: its joy will be increased ‘extensively.’ Therefore the blessed, while feeling no sorrow, look forward with pleasure to the Judgment Day, when, as they know, they will be complete, more akin to their Maker, and endowed with an additional capacity for blessedness.²

Dante had addressed this question before in Canto VI of the Inferno, in which Dante asked Virgil how those suffering in Inferno would fare after the Last Judgment, when they had regained their bodies; Virgil told him of the greater pain that the embodied sufferers would undergo:

“And after the great sentence—
o master—will these torments grow, or else
be less, or will they be just as intense?”

And he to me: “Remember now your science,
which says that when a thing has more perfection,
so much the greater is its pain or pleasure.”
Inferno vi.103-108

Luca Giordano: The Dream of Solomon: God promises Solomon wisdom

After these questions had been answered by Solomon, Dante saw, like the glow of the rising sun before the dawn, a new series of lights in the distance.

And even as, at the approach of evening,
new lights begin to show along the sky,
so that the sight seems and does not seem real,

it seemed to me that I began to see
new spirits there, forming a ring beyond
the choirs with their two circumferences.
xiv.70-75

This third circle that Dante saw approaching in the increasing glow contained a multitude of souls, more than the dozens that were contained in the first two circles; he was first aware of them only faintly, but they grew in brightness as they approached. This was an additional manifestation of a triadic structure, of which we have seen so much; if the first circle represented the Father, and the second circle the Son, then this third circle represented the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Ghost, which is Love, illumines all the souls in each of the three circles, but to end the exclamation in the name of the third person of the Trinity points up this very fact, since in the usual order of naming the three persons the Holy Ghost comes last. Moreover, no spirits of this third circle are named, hence their appearance here for the purpose of completing the number three is the more evident.³

‘The Glorious Cross’ (from The Divine Comedy, Paradise ), 1 May 1807

In its dimness at first and brightness afterwards, there may be a reference to the difficulty that has always been experienced in finding an adequate philosophical basis for the doctrine of the Third Person of the Trinity corresponding to the clearness of the distinction between the conceptions of God in his essence (Father) and God as manifested (Son); whereas to the more strictly theological speculation, or rather to the religious experience, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (God regarded not as the Creator or the Redeemer, but as the Inspirer) has always had a special vividness.⁴

Beatrice’s smile, as a reflection of the light of God, then so enveloped him, that he was unable to express any more, the memory of the third ring eclipsed by Beatrice’s beauty; he basked in her gaze and then, looking up, felt himself rise up into the heights and into the red light of Mars, the fifth celestial sphere.

And the heaven of Mars can be compared to music in terms of two properties. The first is its most beautiful harmony, since, numbering the moving heavens, from whichever end one starts, the lowest or the highest, the heaven of Mars is fifth, the midpoint of all of them, the first heavens at either end, then the second heavens, the third heavens, and the fourth. The second is that Mars, according to what Ptolemy says in his Four Books, dries and burns things up, because its heat is like fire; and this is why it appears fiery in color, sometimes more and sometimes less, according to the density and sparseness of the vapors that trail it.
Dante, Convivio II.xiii.20-21

As he realized the nature of his ascent, Dante had a moment of quiet inner thanksgiving, in the language of the heart; he offered himself as a burnt offering, the ultimate offering and the most complete surrender one could give as a tribute to show sincerity of purpose, to the divine. So heartfelt and deep was the place from which this offering came, that before Dante even finished the idea, he felt it accepted by the very God he prayed it to.

Double rays of light appeared before him, and he burst out with a prayer of praise to Helios, God as a spiritual Sun.

Helios, here used as the name of God, the spiritual sun. The word represents a fusion of the Greek word helios (ἣλιος), meaning “sun,” and the Hebrew Ely, meaning “God.”⁵

Fourth Heaven, or that of the Sun: St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Buonaventura of Bagnoregio

These rays of light began to form themselves into a shape as Dante watched:

As, graced with lesser and with larger lights
between the poles of the world, the Galaxy
gleams so that even sages are perplexed;

so, constellated in the depths of Mars,
those rays described the venerable sign
a circle’s quadrants form where they are joined.
xiv.97-102

Seeing this sight appear in the heavens, this symbol of Christ, Dante was left mute in his attempts to describe it. As he beheld the shining cross, he saw light passing from arm to arm horizontally, and then up and down, sparkling as each light passed by each other, just as motes of dust in a beam of light move effortlessly and reflect the light.

Beautiful music emanated from this cross of light populated by sparkling souls, and even not recognizing the hymn, hearing only a few words pointing to an Easter liturgical hymn of praise, Dante was filled with exquisite love:

Yet I was so enchanted by the sound
that until then no thing had ever bound
me with such gentle bonds. My words may seem

presumptuous, as though I dared to deem
a lesser thing the lovely eyes that bring
to my desire, as it gazes, peace.
xiv.127-132

The magnificence of the sight before him made Dante apologize self deprecatingly, lest the reader think that he was not giving Beatrice enough praise, that he was putting the glory of something else over her.

He had been so overwhelmed at the sight of the cross, that he had not yet had the chance to see how much more beautiful she had become in this ascent; as the scenes before them become more sublime, so will Beatrice grow in his sight.

---

💭 Philosophical Exercises

“Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit.”

~ Solomon’s Proverbs

Judgement of Solomon. Engraving by Gustave Doré, 19th century.

I.

My reader must forgive me for a small speculation.

This canto explores the interconnection between the body and the soul. My speculation is this: for most of our journey through this masterpiece, we tried to cure the domination of our bodies over our souls, but now the roles reverse, and the resurrection of the body, the way I see it, is when the body is in full and total control of the soul.

This is why I believe Dante asks whether our eyes can see the Divine Light once we regain the body, and he is reassured that, yes, they can.

As we will see in the next canto, and already get the sense in this one, we pass from the Sun’s sphere of wisdom to Mars, where wisdom is tempered into action.

II.

Each canto of Paradiso feels like a pivotal point, and Canto XIV marks a particular pivotal moment in our pilgrim’s ascent, transitioning from the Heaven of the Sun, where wisdom and intellect reign, to the Heaven of Mars, where faith becomes embodied through action and martyrdom.

The canto opens with a beautiful image of water circulating in a round vessel, struck either at its centre or rim, which mirrors how the discourse flows between Thomas Aquinas at the circumference and Beatrice at the centre.

Once again we witness Beatrice’s divine intuition, she takes Dante’s thoughts and gives them shape. She perceives that Dante’s mind means to grasp a “root of yet another truth.”

The root that Dante’s mind is searching for concerns the eternal fate of the blessed souls’ radiance. At first, he wonders whether the brilliant light that flowers upon their spiritual substance will remain with them forever.

Second, and more crucially, he asks what will happen when these souls are reunited with their resurrected, glorified bodies at the Last Judgment; would such overwhelming light not dazzle or harm the physical eyes of those who behold them?

Beatrice’s response introduces a profound theological doctrine: the radiance will indeed remain eternal, but the glorified body will be indestructible, incapable of suffering except through the spirit itself. The resurrected body will possess organs strong enough to bear divine delight without harm.

This is the root of my speculation, since in the Philosophical Exercises I aim at converting this wisdom into practical explanation. I do fully recognise, my dear reader, that there is a different vision of these words as well.

And yet I find it beautiful and mysteriously inspiring to think that, in Dante’s Christian vision, refining the soul to see the truth can bring us to a state where the spirit grows so strong that no physical harm can touch it. It reminds me of the Aristotelian saying: ‘Nothing can hurt a good man’

We see this element of spiritual strength when Beatrice’s answer is interrupted by the souls, who pause their celestial dance to celebrate the Trinity in a single, magnificent tercet: “One and Two and Three which ever lives / and reigns always in Three and Two and One.”

This moment crystallises the Christian mystery of God as one Substance, two Natures (divine and human in Christ), and three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The theological emphasis on the Holy Ghost connects divine reward to grace, preparing the ground for Solomon’s discourse.

Solomon, the most radiant soul in the circle of the wise, then addresses Dante’s question about eternal splendour. He explains that the soul’s brightness corresponds to its fervour of love, which in turn reflects the clarity of its spiritual vision of God—itself a gift of Grace.

But here comes the transformative insight to our pilgrim: the human creature is deemed more perfect when it possesses its body. At the resurrection, when “the glorious and holy flesh” re-clothes the soul, both the soul’s light and its joy will increase extensively.

Solomon uses the image of a glowing coal within a flame to illustrate this: the radiance enveloping the soul becomes even more brilliant when united with the glorified body, because the physical form completes the human person.

This is why I wanted to speculate about the nature of bodily resurrection. I believe this to be particularly relevant since the next stage of our journey will involve the realm of action. A beautiful spirit with no ability to manifest itself will fade away.

This represents a remarkable reversal from the Inferno, where the body was the site of sin, requiring purgation and discipline. In Hell, bodies dragged souls downward through appetite and violence. But now, in Paradise, the body is rehabilitated as an integral part of human perfection, not an impediment to the spirit but its necessary completion.

The soul needs its body to achieve its fullest expression of love and vision. Wisdom and intellect, celebrated in the Heaven of the Sun, are not purely abstract or disembodied; they find their ultimate fulfillment when integrated with the physical form.

This theological revelation propels Dante immediately into the Heaven of Mars, where the souls of Christian warriors form a blazing cross. These are souls who lived their faith through action—martyrs who embodied their spiritual convictions in the material world. As they flash along the cross like motes in a sunbeam, Christ Himself appears in their movement, the resurrected Christ who conquered death through His own glorified body. The words “Vinci” (conquer) and “Resurgi” (arise) echo through the vision, proclaiming triumph through embodied faith.

The transition from Sun to Mars thus embodies Dante’s insight: wisdom must be lived, intellect must be enacted, and the soul achieves its highest dignity not by escaping the body but by embracing it as the vehicle through which divine love operates in the world.

Where the Inferno disciplined the flesh, Paradiso glorifies it not as it was in sin, but as it will be in resurrection, perfected and inseparable from the soul’s eternal radiance.

---

This Week’s Sinners and Virtuous 🎭

(Themes, Quotes, Terms and Characters)

Sandro Botticelli, Dante in the Sphere of Sun

I. One in three and Three in One

The “three in one and one in three” expresses Christianity’s central mystery of the Trinity: that God exists as a single, undivided divine essence while simultaneously being three distinct Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Dante’s Paradiso, the souls in the Heaven of the Sun celebrate this paradox through both words and visual symbolism, chanting praise to the divine unity that is eternally both one and three, three and one.

When a third circle of light gathers around the two already there, Dante fashions a living image of the Trinity: the third ring signifies the Holy Spirit and completes the sacred geometry of God’s triune being a mystery that surpasses human logic yet lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

---

Quotes 🖋️

(The ones I keep in my journal as reminders of eternal wisdom):

And just as harp and viol, whose many chords
are tempered, taut, produce sweet harmony
although each single note is not distinct,

so, from the lights that then appeared to me,
out from that cross there spread a melody
that held me rapt, although I could not tell

what hymn it was. I knew it sang high praise,
since I heard “Rise” and “Conquer,” but I was
as one who hears but cannot seize the sense.

~ lines 118-126, Paradiso, Canto XIV

---

1. Charles S. Singleton, Commentary on the Paradiso 241

2. Singleton 245

3. Singleton 246

4. Singleton 246

5. Singleton 248