Daily Signet

“Through me is the way into the woeful city.… Leave every hope, ye who enter!” Would that more theologians were Dantes, able to convert their tremendous theological content into a poetry of doctrine, into melodies of theology that one simply can’t get out of one’s head. With unforgettable lines, characters, and images, the poet/theologian takes technical, dogmatic detail and forms melodies that everyone can hum. Eternally rich expressions, they are universal, but never trivial in their simplicity and appeal, like folk tunes that appear over and over again woven into even far more complex theological symphonies.

“The Mission of Virgil” by William Blake; @birminghamuseumstrust on Unsplash

After passing through the gates of Hell, Dante meets up with Casella, an old musician friend of his, and Dante asks him to sing again of the song of love which was wont to quiet all his longings. “Love which in my mind discourses with me,” he then began, "so sweetly that the sweetness still within me sounds.” May all Christuman theology be of such sound: may all our syllogisms be written on the heart, the seat of song:  be propounded not just from believing, but from beloving, written as if by magnificent amateur theologians/composers transcribing melodies of the love with which our minds discourse. May our theology be written and lived in melodies so sublime that they resound within us eternally, converting faith to understanding and understanding to delight.                                                                               

Teri Martin