Spiritual Direction from Dante, Volume 1: Avoiding the Inferno, Hardcover

Hell and how to avoid it are perennial topics of interest for believing Christians and others. With good reason. Entire libraries have been written on the subject. Most people, even those familiar with his classic, do not realize that Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy, chock-full as it is of history and politics, is a masterpiece of spiritual writing. The most famous of his three volumes is the Inferno, an account of Dante's journey through the underworld, where he sees the horror of sin firsthand. Join Dante and--guided by Oratorian Father Paul Pearson--with him . . .

• learn that the sufferings of the souls in hell are the natural consequences of the spiritual disorder of their sinful actions.
• develop a profound hatred for sin, not merely because it offends God, but because it will destroy your soul and thwart your happiness, both on earth and for eternity.
• observe the horrible punishments of the damned and be shocked into a state of enlightened self-interest.
• armed with the knowledge of what sin does to us, resolve to fight against it with all your strength.
• realize that this literary journey through hell is intended to lead you to heaven.

A reading experience like no other, Spiritual Direction from Dante, will educate and entertain you, but most importantly, will help you avoid the inferno

About the Author

Father Paul Pearson converted to Catholicism during his university days, entered the Toronto Oratory in 1985, was ordained to the priesthood in 1989, and began serving as Dean of Saint Philip's, the seminary run by the Oratorians in 1990. That same year, in response to requests from seminarians, he began to offer seminars on Dante's Inferno. This volume and two forthcoming ones on the spiritual aspects of the Purgatorio and Paradiso have been written so that a wider audience may benefit from "spiritual direction from Dante."