Unexamined Faith is Not Worth Practicing

(Paradiso, Canto XXIV): Saint Peter questions Dante's faith

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 twenty-fourth Canto, Dante is questioned by St. Peter. 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 Fixed Stars, continued - The circling wheels of souls - The brightest soul comes forth - St. Peter addresses Dante - Questions of the theological virtue of Faith - Dante answers each question posed - Peter celebrates Dante’s deep understanding of Faith, both doctrinally and personally.

Canto XXIV Summary:

Beatrice called out to the souls of the elect in the realm of the Fixed Stars, after having watched the ascension of the Virgin Mary into the highest spheres of the heavens. She asked them to accept Dante into the feast of the blessed, to share their table and their deep insights with him, so that he may be quenched in his desire to understand all there was to know about the most divine truths, and the realms in which he ascended through.

I therefore, who do not sit at the blessed meal, but, having fled the feeding ground of the common herd, gather, at the feet of those who are seated, what falls from them, familiar with the wretched life of those I left behind.
Dante, Convivio I.i.10

At this request the souls before them rejoiced, arranging themselves in concentric circles, spinning faster or slower round a fixed central point, the speed of their dance contingent on the degree of their blessedness.

As we encounter vision after vision here in Paradise, it is as if we have entered into one vast pageant of delight in the highest God, and each scene that Dante witnesses unfolding before him is but one element of a much grander scheme; it is as though since the moment of ascension up the ladder from Saturn to this eighth sphere of the fixed stars, it is a continual unfolding to the bright center of its final achievement.

And just as, in a clock’s machinery,
to one who watches them, the wheels turn so
that, while the first wheel seems to rest, the last

wheel flies; so did those circling dancers—as
they danced to different measures, swift and slow—
make me a judge of what their riches were.
xxiv.13-18

Even when considering the different speeds of these circles, their unity—as a clock’s gears need the others to function—is palpable and ever increasing. From the brightest of these spheres, the very brightest light of them all came forth and circled round Beatrice three times, singing as it crowned her with light. So beautiful was its song that Dante, in writing out this vision for us, his readers, was unable to put it into words. It was imprinted there, upon his ‘phantasy’, or sense faculty that received images, but was beyond his capacity to express in mere mortal terms.

Just as the past masters of painting would work tirelessly to capture the nuances of light in the folded gowns and fabrics of their painted models, so did Dante try to be as nuanced in this description of the song, but to no avail. The soul, who encircled Beatrice addressed her:

“O you who pray to us with such devotion—
my holy sister—with your warm affection,
you have released me from that lovely sphere.”
xxiv.28-30

Beatrice addressed him back, indicating who he was with her words: “that great man to whom our Lord bequeathed the keys” (35), who, as we know by now, was St. Peter the Apostle, and the first pope of Rome:

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Matthew 16:18-19

The Crucifixion of St Peter by Caravaggio

She asked Peter to test Dante on matters of Faith, both the major themes of church doctrine and minor themes of how he applied it to his own life. This will be the first examination of the elements of the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, or Love. Peter himself had put this faith into practice when he walked on water toward Jesus during a storm on the Sea of Galilee:¹

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
Matthew 14:24-29

She expanded on the purpose of Dante’s replies; that even though Peter knew the answers already, as we have seen, for Dante himself to express his understanding brought the ideas into a concrete reality. To have to put into words that which one believes is not always the easiest task. Since he was to speak of this in poetry, how much more fitting was it that Dante had to express those thoughts concretely.

Dante prepared himself to answer these questions of faith as if for the examination before the master for a degree in theology or philosophy; just as today the doctoral candidate must defend their thesis before a committee, so did this tradition stem from the earliest Universities. That discussion did not come to the terminus in answering any such question in its proven and final statement, but was rather a discussion of ideas which was then later expanded upon by the master:

Just as the bachelor candidate must arm
himself and does not speak until the master
submits the question for discussion—not

for settlement—so while she spoke I armed
myself with all my arguments, preparing
for such a questioner and such professing.
xxiv.46-51

To understand the simile the modern reader needs to know that in the medieval examination, or disputatio, leading to the degree of doctor of theology, a time was appointed for the discussion of a given question. On this occasion the master or doctor examining the candidate would state the question, whereupon the “bachelor” was expected to adduce proof (approvare), that is, bring arguments to bear on it (both pro and con), but he did not presume to settle or decide the question (terminare), since this privilege belonged only to the examining doctor and was called the ‘determinatio’.²

St. Peter asked his first question of Dante; a simple question based on the tenets of the Church: What is faith? With a glance at Beatrice, Dante was ready to spill forth the waters of intellectual knowledge that was within him.

His opening was like an invocation to the moment: that he would be blessed to be able to speak lucidly before St. Peter, whom he called the Chief Centurion, indicating that he was the principal commander of the Church.

Dante spoke of St. Paul, “your dear brother” (61), he who was the author of many of the New Testament books—the Pauline Epistles—and quoted a verse from Hebrews, a clear and concise definition of Faith:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

---

Though some say that the above words of the Apostle are not a definition of faith, yet if we consider the matter aright, this definition overlooks none of the points in reference to which faith can be defined. Accordingly if anyone would reduce the foregoing words to the form of a definition, he may say that faith is a habit of the mind, whereby eternal life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to what is non-apparent.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II.II q.4, a.1

The ‘quiddity’ that Dante referred to in relation to this definition indicated the substantial form of a thing as defined by scholastic philosophy, that which gives a thing its defining essence.

This definition gave way to a confirmation by St. Peter, and a follow up clarification of terms, when Peter asked if Dante understood why Faith was called a substance while at the same time calling it an evidence. Dante answered succinctly that on earth, as the heavenly things cannot be seen, that they must be approached first through faith, but that transforms into evidence:

And it is from this faith that we must reason,

deducing what we can from syllogisms
without our being able to see more:
thus faith is also called an evidence
xxiv.75-78

The eternal Heavenly life, replies Dante, is beyond the perception of mortals and, for them, exists only in their belief; hence Faith, from the human point of view, is the material, or substance, of which the hoped-for joys consist. Moreover, while in ordinary matters we argue from proved facts, in religion we use as our basis for further reasoning a belief; and so Faith, in theological questions, takes the place which in worldly syllogisms is taken by evidence.³

Peter complimented Dante on his understanding of these deeper theological matters, saying that those sophists who taught only for praise or recognition would have nowhere to teach if everyone understood the truth so well. He moved on to another question: now that they had defined Faith as a whole from a doctrinal perspective, Peter wanted to know if Dante himself had that weighty coin in his possession, not just through argument:

“Now this coin is well-examined,
and now we know its alloy and its weight.

But tell me: do you have it in your purse?”
And I: “Indeed I do—so bright and round
that nothing in its stamp leads me to doubt.”
xxiv.83-87

Dante specified the roundness of the coin that represented his Faith; as the edges of gold and silver coins were notoriously shaved off to collect the scraps into extra ‘profit’ in the middle ages, having one of full weight was an indication of its full measure.

Peter’s fourth question to Dante inquired about the origin of this Faith and how one would uncover the benefits of it in their own life. Dante pointed to the inspired scriptures, and the power of their word to instantly show the truth; a truth that shone brighter than any other he had found:

“The Holy Ghost’s abundant
rain poured upon the parchments old and new;
that is the syllogism that has proved

with such persuasiveness that faith has truth—
when set beside that argument, all other
demonstrations seem to me obtuse.”
xxiv.91-96

Eighth circle, or that of the Fixed Stars: St. Peter examines Dante upon Faith

While that was acceptable as an answer, it led Peter to refine it even further; that even if these scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are convincing, how could he be assured that they were the actual words of God? Dante answered that it was the fact that miracles were recorded in those scriptures.

Peter continued to press for more proof; and the sixth question formed pointed to the circular reasoning of this argument, that the miracles professed within the scriptures were proof of the scriptures authenticity as the word of God: how did Dante know these miracles actually happened?

Dante was ready with the answer: that since the world had come to accept Christianity without those miracles being in the present moment, but only as written, and through the word of the ‘poor and hungry’ (109-110) apostles, that in itself made it an even greater miracle than those recorded in the scripture.

“If without miracles the world
was turned to Christianity, that is
so great a miracle that all the rest

are not its hundredth part: for you were poor
and hungry when you found the field and sowed
the good plant—once a vine and now a thorn.”
xxiv.106-111

This one grand miracle suffices for us, that the whole world has believed without any miracles. St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei xxii.5

So deeply did Dante’s answer mirror the hearts of those souls in the realm of the fixed stars that they all called out in praise at this junction, a sign that his answer was sufficient and accepted: Te Deum Laudamus—Lord we praise you.

Peter, however, had a few more questions for Dante, as he stated that up until this point, it was grace that spoke through Dante in giving these answers, and he now wanted to know about Dante’s personal experience with Faith, not just the theological answers. To do this, he began with the tenets of the Apostle’s Creed⁴, to which he added a few Aristotelian notions:

‘I believe in one God—sole,
eternal—He who, motionless, moves all
the heavens with His love and love for Him;
xxiv.130.132

Like the unmoved mover who moves those heavens with desire on their part, is from Aristotle. Only the love—if this means, as it seems to, love on the part of God for His creation, so that He moves the heavens with His love—is specifically Christian.⁵

Dante gave proofs of these: physical proof, metaphysical proof, and the proofs of the Biblical scriptures as a whole.

St. Thomas gives five physical and metaphysical proofs of the existence of God: the impossibility of explaining the world without the assumption of a first motor, of a first efficient cause, of a first necessity, of a first goodness, of a first governing intelligence. He [also] tells us that theology makes use of philosophy.⁶

He also outlined his belief in the Trinity of the three persons in one, of God as the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the proof of this Trinity in the Scripture, and how deeply these truths were ingrained upon his heart.

This is the origin, this is the spark
that then extends into a vivid flame
and, like a star in heaven, glows in me.
xxiv.145-147

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
1 John 5:7

Peter celebrated these answers by embracing Dante and welcoming him into the community of light in the starry heavens. He sang with delight as he circled Dante three times, just as he had with Beatrice, thus crowning him with light.

---

💭 Philosophical Exercises

Sandro Botticelli

My father once told me that faith is a gift. He didn’t mean it in the sentimental sense that “believers are lucky to believe,” as if belief were a comforting blanket handed to a chosen few. He meant something much sharper.

For him, the true gift was the ability to believe in realities that almost certainly lack any empirical proof.

To continue his line of thought, and to add a small correction of my own, I would say that every true believer must be, in a certain sense, a little bit of an atheist. By this I mean: genuine faith always carries a trace of inner opposition, a vein of doubt that never quite disappears. A belief that has never wrestled with questions, that has never trembled under the weight of uncertainty, is not faith but submission.

The person who never experiences doubt has not surrendered their life to God, but has surrendered their intelligence. That is not holiness; it is fanaticism.

In the next three cantos of Paradiso, Dante is examined by Saint Peter, Saint James, and Saint John on the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

What is paradoxical is the setting in which this examination takes place. In the previous canto, Canto XXIII, the language became circular, almost disorganized, dreamlike. Images appeared in fragments, as if Dante were catching glimpses of a vision too vast to grasp all at once.

Here, in Canto XXIV, something different happens. Against that swirling, circular background, Dante now introduces a more linear, almost scholastic movement. Contrary to Teodolinda Barolini’s stronger emphasis on the circular and disjunctive quality of this stretch of Paradiso, I think that here Dante is deliberately combining the two: the circular motion of contemplation with the straightforward, logical motion of an examination by St. Peter.

And this is where the real paradox emerges. Dante is being questioned by Saint Peter about faith while our pilgrim already stands within the celestial realm. He is already in Paradise. Peter is before him in person. He has just witnessed the radiant presence and power of Christ. And yet, despite all this vision, he is still interrogated on belief. Peter asks him: What is faith? What is it like? Where does it come from? What do you, Dante, actually believe?

The Denial of St Pater by Caravaggio

I find this absolutely remarkable, because it echoes, in a higher key, the small piece of wisdom I mentioned earlier from my father.

Faith here is not treated as a tranquil possession, a certainty that abolishes all inner struggle. Even in the very presence of the divine light, Dante’s faith must be examined, articulated, tested. It is as if Paradise itself confirms what my father intuited: that true faith is not the absence of doubt, but the courage to carry doubt into the presence of God and still answer, as best one can, the question, “What do you believe?”

But then we have to ask ourselves a harder question. Dante follows the traditional definition that faith is belief in things not seen. What does that actually look like in human life?

If we look at the stories that shape our civilisation, many of them concern events no one alive has witnessed. Think of the great founding narratives of peoples and cities. Virgil’s story in his great poem, the Aeneid, stands at the foundation of Rome: the journey of Aeneas, the fall of Troy, the divine promises that Rome will arise. No one has “seen” these scenes with their own eyes; there is no empirical evidence in our modern sense, and yet entire cultures live as though such stories were, in some deeper way, true.

Our capacity to receive these narratives, to hold them as trustworthy and formative even when they lie beyond our direct experience, is very close to what Dante means by faith. It is the ability to live by realities that are not available to sight. In Canto XXIV, when he recalls that faith is “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen,” he is naming this mysterious movement of the soul: we lean on words, on testimony, on a story given to us, and we let that unseen truth organise our lives.

For Dante himself, of course, the highest form of this is not the epic myth of Rome but the revealed story of Scripture: creation, Incarnation, resurrection, the Trinity. Yet the very structure of our trust in the Aeneid helps us understand what is at stake.

We already know what it is to be shaped by stories we cannot verify with our senses. Faith, in Dante’s vision, takes this human capacity and lifts it into a different key: it is the decision to entrust one’s life not only to poetic or civic narratives, but to a divine narrative that can never be fully “seen,” even when one is standing in the very light of Paradise.

---

This Week’s Sinners and Virtuous 🎭

(Themes, Quotes, Terms and Characters)

I. True Humility

One cannot get rid of the thought of how necessary it was for Dante to go through the difficult path that he did so he could appear at this point and be examined by Saint Peter.

An arrogant and prideful soul, a soul that had not crossed Inferno or Purgatorio, would have been combative if, after going through such a hard journey, they would have been questioned about their faith.

What do you mean do I have faith? Have you seen the journey that I’ve treaded to appear here?

And yet, Dante humbly answers Saint Peter’s questions.

---

Quotes 🖋️

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

I heard: “The premises of old and new
impelling your conclusion—why do you
hold these to be the speech of God?” And I:

“The proof revealing truth to me relies
on acts that happened; for such miracles,
nature can heat no iron, beat no anvil.”

“Say, who assures you that those works were real?”
came the reply. “The very thing that needs
proof—no thing else—attests these works to you.”

~ lines 97--105, Paradiso, Canto XXIV

---

1. Although Beatrice kindly refrained from pointing out how Peter had shortly thereafter lost that faith and began to sink; but is that not more relevant to seekers of today, whose will vacillates with the waves?

2. Charles S. Singleton, Commentary on the Paradiso 388

3. Singleton 390-391

4. The Apostles Creed:
I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
He descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of Saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen

5. Singleton 395

6. Singleton 395