Description

Wendy Furman-Adams
(Online)

Workshop on Dante’s Divine Comedy

Saturday, May 16, 2026

1:00 – 4:00 pm

This workshop will introduce key passages from the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso to demonstrate Dante’s use of allegory, focusing particularly on its psychological and spiritual dimensions. Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory, the poet Virgil, tells Dante that the damned are souls who have lost “the good of the intellect.” The blessed are those who have recovered it. What is it to have, or to lack, the good of intellect? We will also consider the related concept of “contrapasso” explicitly referred to in the Inferno, but operative throughout the entire Comedy.

Finally, we will consider how it is that souls reconcile, or fail to reconcile, with themselves, with their fellow human beings, and with God. These questions are timeless but also timely.

How can our society recover the good of intellect?

Wendy Furman-Adams, Ph.D., is Emerita Professor of English Literature at Whittier College, where she spent 39 years teaching courses on the Bible, classical and Renaissance literature, medieval literature, Dante, Milton, and the literature of love–all of which have informed her passion for the life of the soul and mind. She has edited two books, published over 40 articles and book chapters, and delivered numerous lectures on the intersections of literature and art with spirituality, gender, eco-consciousness, and self-discovery. Professor Furman-Adams is a long-time member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA, where she has taught many classic works of devotional and philosophical poetry and art, including Dante’s Commedia. Inspired by Dante’s pilgrimage, she realized a long-standing dream in 2023, when she and her partner walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela–where they too found that the pilgrims journey within is the Way to the stars.