Abbot Suger, On the Abbey of St. Denis
De Administratione was written by Suger, a French statesman, historian, and abbot. In 1122, he was appointed the abbot, and in 1137 he dedicated himself to rebuilding the great Church of Saint-Denis where the French monarchs were buried. Suger is considered one of the earliest patrons of Gothic architecture. The content was written between 1144 following the consecration of the choir and 1148-49 in France. It is one of the two accounts of the renovation of the abbey church of St. Denis.
The key aspects of cosmic themes occur in architectural designs and administration. Essentially, the reader can visualize the events unfolding in the memoir of Suger as pragmatic events in discourse. De Administratione provides an account of his profound administrative efforts in the reconstruction of the abbey church of St. Denis’s finances between 1140 and 1144 while providing a few details on its consecrations. The church had been in a poor state for years. Suger understood the political, religious, and architectural implications of the church’s renovation; hence, he complied with the request to renovate it. He highlights a few aspects of the church building and its furnishing in detail, using it as a justification for his administrative actions on behalf of King Louis VII. Some of the church’s characteristics that identified it with Gothic architecture include the liturgical ornamentation, thinned walls, and exceptional stained-glass window. Moreover, Suger employs metaphors of light and spiritual knowledge derived from Pseudo-Dionysian philosophy to justify these actions.
Dante, Paradiso, Canti 1–13
“Paradiso” is the third part of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.” Dante Alighieri was an Italian philosopher, writer, and poet. He was born in 1265 in Florence and died in 1321 in Ravenna. “The Divine Comedy” is one of the most famous and most outstanding works in medieval European literature. Dante provided details of his life through his works. For instance, the Divine Comedy provides his experience of exile from Florence. Dante was with no doubt influential, particularly in literary development. Dante’s Paradiso was written in the early 14th century in the peninsula, now known as Italy.
“Paradiso” provides an imagination of the different levels of heaven. It elucidates heaven as a beautiful place as Dante and Beatrice rise towards heaven. The two also meet and converse with several blessed souls who contribute to Dante’s transformation from darkness and error to divine light. In cantos I-IV, ascend from Earth into the first sphere, the moon. While inside the moon, Beatrice addresses the errors of the earthly understanding of Paradise. She explains that while God and Paradise exist outside the spheres of the universe, they envelop it. In cantos V-IX, they zoom to the second and third spheres, Mercury and Venus. Beatrice illustrates that while Crucifixion was a just penalty against human sins, it was a crime against Jesus; hence, it deserved punishment and the idea of sin undermining human’s free will to existence. In Cantos X-XII, the two ascend to the fourth sphere, the sun, where they meet Thomas Aquinas, who criticizes the modern decadence of the Dominicans, and St. Bonaventura, who criticizes the errors of the modern Franciscans. Dante employs light to symbolize knowledge and the presence of God throughout the text. He makes these spheres sound joyful and radiant while creating an understanding of the Christian universe’s secrets. Canto II is an interesting account of fascinating imaginations. In my view, it invokes the re-imaginations of the audience on the existence of life in the moon as opposed to scientific reasoning.
Many modern-day Christians have paid attention to the text, yet there are controversies in respect to Dante’s world views. Dante appears to be a summarizer of medieval mentality and an open-minded intellectual. Drawing from this, can it be argued then that Dante was a medieval?
Given that Dante’s ideas are unsubstantial and a mere adventure, how would it benefit anyone to use them as a guide to insight about heaven today?