Dr. Jonathan Juilfs

I think one of the elements that emerges from that too, and I know you're interested in Trinitarian theology, that when we make the claim that the Trinity is unity and diversity, then of course there will be differentiation in the statuses of the blessed.

And none of that should in fact matter in the end game.

If my telos is as an eight ounce glass to be full with eight ounces,

Then I am full.

It's 100%.

And it doesn't matter, like Wesley was saying, it doesn't matter what the amount in the vessel is.

I am full.

Or even filled to overflowing, as many of the images of Scripture give us.

I might also throw out as a little note, too, for readers, if you're interested in medieval texts, the Middle English Pearl, which addresses the divine economy and this beautiful dream vision, another of my favorite poems, a poem that may have some Dantean influence.

It's not easy to prove directly, but I think the Pearl poet may have known Dante's work.

that this same idea comes up in there, that grace is enough.

Whatever you have is the best portion of what you have.

This is, I was telling Junius earlier that,

This is a passage, so I taught Paradiso on a couple of occasions, and I'm actually slated to do so again this fall.

And taking undergraduates through a text as dense and complicated as this, and without the reading of, they've read snippets of Inferno in one of their humanities classes, but they don't have purgatory or a lot of context to play with.

there's always this question of, do I have them read the entirety of Paradiso?

And I've had them do that twice.

And it's always the middle section of Paradiso that I think loses them as readers.

And so I share Junius's confounding, the question that emerged most recently to me, I have an outstanding former student of mine who's pursuing PhD work here soon.

He texted me and he said, Jonathan, what is happening?