Hello everyone, and welcome to Speaking with Joy, a podcast to fill your soul, challenge your mind,

and make you brave. I'm your host, Joy Clarkson, and an evangelist for all things good, true,

and beautiful. So make yourself a cup of tea, find somewhere

comfortable, and let's dive in to this week's episode.

To race now over better waves, my ship of mind, alive again, hoist sail and leaves behind its little keel, the gulf that proved so cruel.

And I'll sing now about that second realm, where human spirits purge themselves from stain, becoming worthy to ascend to heaven.

Here too, dead poetry will rise again. For now, you, sacred muses, I am yours.

So let Calliop a little play her part, and follow as I sing with chords that scourge the wretched magpies, young girls once,

till they despaired of pardon for their insolence. Soft hues of sapphire from the Orient,

collecting gently, marked the circles now of skies serene from height to horizon,

and this sight, once I left the morbid air, which weighed

so heavy on my eyes and heart, began afresh to bring my eyes delight.

The lovely planet, strengthening to our love, lit up with laughter all the orient sky, bailing her escort, Pisckeys, and bright light.

Well, hello, everyone, and welcome back to Speaking with Joy. You're joining me on yet another one of my

escape casts, in which I've been trying to provide good, true, beautiful, and wholesome escape from the

strange times that we find ourselves in. And today we will be escaping into rather grand realms

of hell, heaven, and purgatory. And as our guide, we will have not Virgil or Beatrice,

but a friend of mine who I'm welcome, very excited to welcome on the show,

and that is Dr. Matthew Rathus Moser. Welcome on the show, Matthew. Thanks, Joy. Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to do this episode because Dante is one of the great kind of unmind riches of Christian theology and poetry, which I didn't really

encounter until my master's year. But I know that you've taught on Dante and, as I said on my

podcast a couple of weeks ago, I think there's nothing better better for literary escape than stories of people setting out in a quest.

...