COURSE NUMBER:
COURSE TITLE:
TERM:
CDLN-HACS W15
Dante’s Paradiso
Nov. 29 – Dec. 25, 2015
INSTITUTION:
INSTRUCTOR CONTACT:
TIME COMMITMENT:
Holy Apostles College &
Seminary
Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP
smahfood@holyapostles.edu
3 hours per week
1. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Completed in 1321, the year Dante died, the Paradiso traces Dante the pilgrim’s journey from the Garden of Eden at the
top of Mount Purgatory straight through ten heavenly spheres and into the mind of God. The goal the canticle is to
allegorize the divinization process. Dante gets through Paradise in no time flat; we pilgrims will spend a little over a month
in the journey.
2. ENVISIONED OUTCOME
 Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the cosmological realities of the post-Aquinine
Church, of the historical and political realities of the 14th-century Church, and of the literary accomplishment of the
last great medieval writer who confronted the greatest taxonomy of all time.
3. COURSE SCHEDULE Postings are due on the day of the canto according to the calendar below (e.g., if a student
is going to reflect on Canto 10 of the Paradiso, that reflection can only be posted on December 6).
You will need to watch the video lectures available in the course site for each canto on a schedule as follows:
November 29 – December 25, 2015
Nov 29
30
Dec. 1
2
3
4
5
Paradiso,
Canto 1
Canto 2
Canto 3
Canto 4
Canto 5
Canto 6
Cantos
7&8
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Cantos
9 & 10
13
Canto 11
Canto 12
Canto 13
Canto 14
Canto 15
14
15
16
17
18
Cantos
16 & 17
19
Cantos
18 & 19
20
Canto 20
Canto 21
Canto 22
Canto 23
Canto 24
21
22
23
24
25
Cantos
27 & 28
Canto 29
Canto 30
Canto 31
Canto 32
Canto 33
Cantos
25 & 26
26
*Image courtesy of Jeffrey Monseau, Digital Collections Intern, Mt. Holyoke College, who scanned them from G. Borghi’s "La
Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri,” 1844.
4. COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Participants are asked to provide five short responses to any of the video reflections over the course of their journey
through the Paradiso. For a good time in heaven, it is recommended that participants post their first response in the first sphere
of heaven, their second in spheres 2 or 3, their third in spheres 4, 5 or 6, their fourth in spheres 7, 8, or 9, and their fifth in the
empyrean, preferably canto 33.
It is expected that participants will interact with and respond to each other during their journey. At the end of the journey,
participants will be required to respond to a quiz to demonstrate their knowledge and
comprehension of the main
elements of the Paradiso. As with all MOOCs, this experience will not be instructor-led outside of your access to the video
reflections. It will, however, be regularly monitored and questions concerning it may be emailed to the developer, Dr.
Sebastian Mahfood, at smahfood@holyapostles.edu.
5. RESOURCES:
The video lectures for the MOOC will be made available within the course site and are also available online at my YouTube
channel – just go to www.youtube.com and search for “Sebastian Mahfood Dante Paradiso” and you’ll find it.
The text for the course is Ciardi's translation, which can be found on
Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Comedy-Inferno-PurgatorioParadiso/dp/0451208633 or through the online student store at
http://astore.amazon.com/holapocolsemb-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=56
While the preferred text to use is the Ciardi translation, a number of suitable
translations of each canto are also embedded within the course site.
The MOOC Developer
Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, is a Lay Dominican of the St. Louis Chapter
of the Holy Rosary in the Province of St. Albert the Great.
Dr. Mahfood is Vice-President of Administration at Holy Apostles College &
Seminary in Cromwell, CT. He is also director of the Catholic Distance Learning
Network of the National Catholic Educational Association, associate editor of
Seminary Journal, and associate director of the Parresia Project, an organization
that pursues greater mutuality among international priests and their American
pastors and parishes. He serves on the board of directors of the Institute for
Theological Encounter with Science and Technology and the board of trustees
of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO.
Dr. Mahfood holds a master’s in comparative literature from the University of
Texas at Arlington, a master’s in philosophy and a master’s in theology from Holy
Apostles College & Seminary, a master’s of educational technology from
Webster University, and a doctorate in postcolonial literature and theory from
Saint Louis University. Among his publications include his book Radical
Eschatologies: Embracing the Eschaton in the works of Ngugi wa Thiong’o,
Nuruddin Farah, and Ayi Kwei Armah.
Dr. Mahfood lives in St. Louis with his wife, Dr. Stephanie Mahfood, and children,
Alexander and Eva Ruth.
2
Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, O.P.