Dante's 'Commedia' mystery

Dante Alighieri's insistence that the afterlife journey poetically framed in the Commedia is truth—his own religious vision in which he is shown the state of souls after death—gives rise to three ongoing debates in religious, literary, and psychological circles about whether Dante offers the Commedia as a theologian, a poet, or a madman. First is the religious, as to whether he offers a view of the soul's journey in keeping with ecumenical tenets; second is the literary, as to whether and to what degree he intends the Commedia to be understood as theological truth or as poetic fiction; and third is the psychological, as to whether he writes lucidly and with meaning. His claim of truth suggests the numinous and the noetic states of consciousness, as described by Otto and James—direct personal experience of the mysterium tremendum..;These controversies are examined in historical and cultural contexts, through development of a range of related topics, including the unique convincing quality of the religious experience. Also, Dante's plurilingual writing style for the Commedia veils its underlying message, one he intends to be rediscovered over time. His plurilingual style, polysemous writing, symbolism, and the strategic use of plain language ensure that his message is preserved from censorship, as he chronicles his visionary experiences in the language of mysticism overlaid by the voice of orthodoxy.;The third debate, about Dante's sanity, requires a wide exploration of evolving attitudes toward individuals who have a religious experience—an event in consciousness which historically becomes marginalized. I deconstruct the development of psychological theory out of its Western philosophical roots to show why nineteenth-century psychologists assume that religious belief and religious experiences are pathological, attitudes which influence early psychological theory.;This study shows that the sanity of Dante, who is an extraordinarily lucid and high-functioning individual, is never legitimately questionable. It also broadly concludes that more study of the religious experience is needed, separate from both psychological and religious venues to increase the likelihood of unbiased research, so that progress may be made toward greater understanding of what Dante actually experiences. It renews the straightforward question, what is the religious experience?...