ABSTRACT
The metaphor of the garden of God with God as gardener is one of the many Dante uses to present the Utopian vision in the Divina Commedia. Gardens in the Judaeo-Christian soteriology begin and end in history, representing a memory of an idyllic utopia before time and history, and forecasting an end of time which will terminate all the contingencies of human activities. The “singular” Utopian garden exists out of time where God is the gardener, in the poet’s vision, standing in opposition to the personal and public forms of violence, desire, and betrayal that characterize history. Dante’s garden imagery follows biblical traditions interpreted by Christian theologians and exegetes and at the same time reaches back to fundamental symbolic traditions that predate Christianity. The Utopian celestial garden first referred to by Beatrice in Paradiso XXIII is the focus of Paradiso XXVI when Dante must confess his love to the beloved disciple, John, and where he discusses Eden with Adam.
