SOURCE: Saly, John. “The Eternal Now: Union with Being” and “Dante, Poet of the Future.” In Dante's Paradiso: The Flowering of the Self: An Interpretation of the Anagogical Meaning, pp. 175-99. New York: Pace University Press, 1989.

In the following excerpt, Saly explores the third level of meaning of Paradiso, which Dante calls “anagogical” and which theologians, as Saly explains, define as mystical or spiritual.

The Eternal Now: Union with Being

Dentro all' ampiezza di questo reame casual punto non puote aver sito, se non come tristizia, o sete, o fame; 

chè per eterna legge è stabilito quantunque vedi, sì che giustamente ci si risponde dall' anello al dito. 

[XXXII. 52-57]

(In all the breadth of this kingdom nothing of chance can find a place any more than sorrow or thirst or hunger, for all thou seest is ordained by eternal law, so that here the ring exactly fits the...