J.

Michael Eugenio 1

Life of Sorrow, Life of Mercy Education is problematicknowing what to teach, and how to teach it, has seemingly been a point of contention for all societies. Education is especially contentious when it isnt specific and practical, but is about how one should live. And, even if there is an understanding of the proper way to live, like Christianity often seems to have, figuring out how to get there, and how to show others the way, are each just as difficult. Christianity, in its various instantiations, takes up this task of moral education, attempting to provide both a system and an example by which individuals, with their particular experiences and aptitudes, can follow. This struggle of education, between the universal and the personal, and between knowledge and experience, is attempted by Christianity in its various conceptions of an individual faith relating to a universal presence. St. Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, provides a method of religious education sensitive to individual students and their particular sins and experiences, but which is nevertheless a formal programme which should lead all away from sin and to the love of the Lord. Dante in his Paradiso and Defoe in Robinson Crusoe, however, each offer an individual account of finding the middle road of temperance after a winding confrontation with sin that, while personal, is presented and shared. Each Dante, Ignatius, and Defoe, though all in different historical and social stations, respond to the contemporary political and religious factionalism that leads people astray from basic Christian principles and the divine good, which is for all three revealed through individual prophetic experience. They each present an example by which individuals can be educated by God, beginning by examining sin and then moving to the Lord. In examining the ways each deal with aspects of educationthe necessity for private reflection, the bounds of reason and will as they relate to the desired state of temperance, the ability to share

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private revelations, whether such private truths can be made universally relevantwe can better understands the problems they found in their respective Christian societies. Dante, Ignatius, and Defoe each privilege private reflection on personal experience and sin as foundational for an education. Ignatius was himself induced by a vision of Mary and Jesus while hospitalized, coming to his understanding of the practices found in the Spiritual Exercises after his own regular prayers in a secluded cave led to a vision of god. Ignatiuss exercises likewise emphasize the necessity of privacy and withdrawal: the progress made in the Exercises will be greater, the more the exercitant withdraws from all friends and acquaintances, and from all worldly cares (Ignatius, 9). He adds that the student should live in as great privacy as possible, for this allows one to not be distracted by others whose occupations are not undertaken with a pure intention, as well as for one to give all of their attention to the service of its creator and its spiritual progress (Ibid.). Similarly, Dante wrote his Commedia while in exile from his Florence, after he (at least as figured in his Vita Nuova and Commedia) had been induced by visions of the Mary-like, beatific Beatrice, his eventual guide in Paradiso. Dante begins his Commedia by recounting his bodily experiences of Hell and then Purgatory (which is in many ways a reflection on his struggles with politics, society, family, and organized religion), experiences necessary before he could receive the light of God, and come to a sweet new poetic style to so depict this grace. Defoes Robinson Crusoe likewise figures a private mans adventures (Defoe, 3) whereby despite Crusoes moments of brief reflection after unfortunate circumstances, he fails to change his ways until, stranded alone on an island, he is brought to confront the horrors of my soul at the terrible vision of a vengeful God (Defoe, 71). After this vision, which only came once he was stripped of the civility that allowed him to escape from dwelling too long on his state, he began to reproach [himself] with [his] past life, reflections

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which opressd [him] (Defoe, 73). It is in these reflections that the middle path of temperance is revealed. The middle path is not a change in place, but rather in perspective and disposition. Robinson Crusoe, after reflecting on his terrible sins for many months, he workd [his] mind up, not only to resignation to the will of God in the present disposition of [his] circumstances; but even to a sincere thankfulness for [his] condition (Defoe, 105). Crusoe sums it up accordingly: as my life was a life of sorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy, another (Defoe, 106). It is likewise privileging the relative examination of ones station that motivates Ignatiuss Exercises to have a student reflect on their own experience and sin before seeing the deeds of Christ, the suffering of his passion, and his final ascension (Ignatius, 2). When you compare your own weakness and hardships against the steadfastness and trials of Christ, your circumstance doesnt seem so bad, while your will is shown in its fragility. Ignatius was writing during a period in which indulgences were becoming less meaningful in their focus on reflectionone of the major motivations for Luthers Theses, and the source of much religious division. Likewise, Dante was heavily involved in the Florentine political struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, fractured in their support for the Papacy and the Empire, and he witnessed the struggles between religious orders like the Franciscans and the Dominicans, which all caused more strife than the Christian generosity and moderation they seemingly all assumed. Once Dante sees all the varied sin and struggle in the realms of Hell and Purgatory, and then sees how effortless the ascension to harmonious Lord is, he looks back: Insensate strivings of mortality how useless are those reasonings of yours that make you beat your wings in downward flight! Men bent on law, some on the Aphorisms some on the priesthood, others in pursuit of governing by means of force or fraud,

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some planning theft, others affairs of state, some tangled in the pleasures of the flesh, some merely given up to indolence, and I, relieved of all such vanities [...] (Dante, Paradiso, XI 1-10) Accordingly, in Canto II Beatrice chastises Dante for presuming the supposedly apparent differences in the world (such as between the light and dark spots of the moon, or the varying radiance of stars). She however does so in the very language of argumentative reason that led to such pedantic difference, proving that such seeming difference is only so apparent by the singular light and virtue of God: Within the highest Heaven of gods peace / revolves a body in whose power lies / the essence of all things contained therein. (Dante, Paradiso, II 112-14). It is thus in seeing how difference is simply unified in the Lord, that all of the varied opportunities available to someone in the middle station, like Dante or Robinson Crusoe, are distracting from the straight path of temperance. It is thus not the case that starting out in the middle station, as Robinson Crusoe did (Nature and the station of life I was born in, seemd to have provided against [miseries] [Defoe, 7]), means that one has an understanding of their place. Otherwise having been born into the middle station should have been sufficient to judge the happiness of [the] state, (Defoe, 6). Crusoe needed to experience and then reflect on the lower states, and to then see how those are connected to the highest station, to truly appreciate the moderate middle. Likewise, Dante returned to living on earth after going through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, and a student who goes through Ignatiuss Spiritual Exercises goes on living after their month of exercise, all the while incorporating their lessons and practices. Overcoming akrasia, a problem in moral education whereby one knows the right thing to do but doesnt do it, is central to education, and Dante, Robinson Crusoe, and Ignatius confront this problem by recognizing the bounds of reason, as well as the importance of bodily experience, and how they each aid in yielding to divine will. Traditionally understood, we dont

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do what we know is right when were angry or desirous, or when dont believe its actually right. Ignatius notes that we use acts of the intellect in reasoning and acts of the will in manifesting our love, and that acts of the will require greater reverence (Ignatius, 2). But reason or desire shouldnt be overly chastised for their straying, and penances need only to be superficially painful, and not cause sickness (Ignatius, 38). Likewise in Dante, as noted above, mans reason and spirit can get in the way of following Godswill, and reason has many features traditionally oriented with desire: I see mans mind cannot be satisfied / unless it be illumined by that Truth / beyond which there exists no other truth (Dante, Paradiso, IV 124-26). So mans inquisitiveness, as well as his pleasure seeking, needs to be aligned with Gods will. Robinson Crusoe is curious to experience much more than he is interested in pleasure (after all, he wasnt wanting of material things). Indeed, it is when he is finally entirely physically taken over with a violent fever, that he feels the need to give himself over to Gods will. Previously he had seen many portents, but did not reason them to God, or when he did, he didnt let that understanding stay with him. This sort of shaping habit or will is likewise promoted in Ignatius, whereby in the daily particular examination of conscience one marks for each time that he has fallen into the particular sin or defect that he is trying to correct (Ignatius, 15). It is accordingly in experiencing and making reflection manifest in writing that the habit is better corrected. Writing down what one particularly did distances the sinful act from themselves and allows them to judge it in a way that merely knowing the general sin wouldnt otherwise allow. It is also in this sort of reflection that one may see how both reason and bodily desire are insufficient, especially in comparison to the later revealed unity of Gods will. It is for this reason that a teacher shouldnt pretend they know the truth that the student is to learn. For the Divine Majesty will be the reason the student wants or retains anything, and it is more suitable and much better that

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the Creator and Lord in person communicate Himself to the devout soul in quest of the divine will, that He inflame it with His love and praise, and dispose it for the way in which it could better serve God in the future (Ignatius, 6-7). This communication likewise wont be something simply relatable, for then there would be no need for the personal engagement with God. As is noted in Dante regarding the question of Eternal Judgment: Even as my notes /are too high for you mind to comprehend, / so is Eternal Judgment for mankind (Dante, Paradiso, XIX 97-99). Much of giving over to divine will is understanding its incomprehensibility, an incomprehensibility that can be reckoned with only once the bounds of reason and will have been acknowledged. The purpose of education is to promote the sort of introspection that produces this yielding acknowledgement. As suggested earlier, writing, and reading the scriptures, or works derivative from them, is so conducive for keeping this understanding, that mind and body are insufficient yet necessary, in mind, the very understanding that overcomes akrasia. Writing ones own experience, and seeing the varied experience of another, both promote a sensitive memory and critical mind, fundamental for any student. Before bringing Dante to the heavens, Beatrice bids him: And now mark well the path that I take up / to reach the truth you seek, so that henceforth / you will know how to take the ford alone (Dante, Paradiso, II 124126). Dante is himself writing the memory of his experience, but also repeating as he was shown. His writing furthermore provides an example against which others can follow for their own personal experience. However, like him, they will need to keep it in memory if they want to keep its lessons when so alone. Likewise, when confronting the marks of ones sins in following the Exercises of Ignatius, one is facing and going over their past experience as to keep in present memory the failure of their reason and will, a practice they repeat with the hope that they will no

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longer need such direct imposition. Even after Robinson Crusoe has been brought to solitude and despair on the island, he only has his confrontation with and vision of God after he begins to write of his experiences in the journal. Right before he begins keeping the journal he marks down very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts [he] enjoyd, against the miseries [he sufferd (Defoe, 54). It is in this comparison of the Evil and Good in his situation that, despite the unparalleled misery of his situation, he found there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it (Defoe, 54). But this realization wasnt only for that particular situation, as Crusoe continues: let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world , that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set in the description of good and evil , on the credit side of the accompt (Defoe, 54). The story that is told of Crusoe has many allegorical parallels with the Bible, notably of Noah and Christ (such as when he begins his application of self by building a raft, starting with a cross and cutting the top mast into three lengths). In many ways it is a revision and a tweaking of the prior biblical woe, similar to how each of the many protestant faiths Defoe was surrounded by had small differences in their interpretations of various Christian practices or ideologies. At the heart of all these revisions however were the same Christian truth that Crusoe realizes. All of the entries in the Evil column begin with I, and reflect on what he lacks, concluding with I have no soul to speak to, or to relieve me. This does not mean sociality, as he already mentioned that lack. Rather, he responds with But God [...], who finally completes the Evil and Good back and forth of the I. So, while writing is a communion with self, and reading can be communion with another self, incorporated in memory, above all, these communions and discernments lead to and mirror the communion with God, whose three parts

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reflect the very tri-part nature of the soul (the struggle of reason over appetite and spirit), again reflected in the pedagogical struggles that Dante, Ignatius, and Defoe all confront. It is in this way that the particular examples given by Dante and Defoe can be made applicable to the souls of others. Robinson Crusoe, we are told by the editor in the preface, is exemplary for the great variety of his life. While he was without any particular trade or aim, he experienced life from various stations and was varied in his suffering. But, moreover: The story is told with modesty, with seriousness, and with a religious application of events to the uses to which wise men always apply them (viz.) to the instruction of others by this example, and to justify and honor the wisdom of Providence in all the variety of our circumstances, let them happen how they will. (Defoe, Preface) It is thus by having a faith in the will of God (let them happen how they will) that an example made in the light of God will intervene by providence. Accordingly it is the forms of education that impose upon this possibilityas was the case in the religious and political strife that Dante, Defoe, and Ignatius facedlacking faith, that Providence can be impeded. Rather, they each urge for the religious application of events, whereby Dante figures the Florence he knew within the Christian domain, Ignatius figures the sins of individuals against the example set by the Lord, and Defoe figures the individual experience of despair in this world a nevertheless strongly within the bounds of divine judgmentfigurations that, they hope, will lead back to their source, their Lord.

Works Cited Alighieri, Dante. The Portable Dante. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc, 1971. Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2001. St. Ignatius. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Chicago: Loyola Press, 1952.