Abstract: The article analyzes the meaning of the verse (in Par. 20) that, quoting the Gospel of Matthew, addresses the violence that the Divine would suffer to grant salvation to the righteous, even pagans, who did not know Christ. After discussing the complex choreography of the Heaven of Jupiter and having pointed out the frequency of biblical allusions that characterizes canto 18, like the other cantos of the Heaven of Jupiter (frequency already observed by Andrea Battistini for cantos 19 and 20), the article examines the relationship between divine will and human will, sacrifice and violence, justice and salvation, grace and deviance. It shows how at the root of these cantos lies the poet’s articulated adherence to the dogma of salvation, which allows him to underline human freedom towards the divine plan, which contemplates violence, above all that suffered by Christ in the Trinitarian plan for salvation.
Keywords: Dante, Divine Comedy, Theology, Theodicy, Redemption, Justice, Violence, Freedom, Grace, Sacrifice.
