Word: papini
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Died. Giovanni Papini, 75, brilliant Italian philosopher (A Finished Man) and biographer (Dante Vivo, Michelangelo), author of the bestselling Life of Christ (1921), a celebrated but intensely personal act of repentance by which he tried to atone for his early, noisy atheism; after long illness; in Florence, Italy. A revolutionary turned ascetic, near-blind Author Papini dallied with the Devil nearly all his life ("My relations with the Devil are very ancient ... It seems to me important that men should know him intimately"), made emptiness of the soul his province with his bleak rendering (1931) of Gog ("Is not bread...
...Rome last week the question of Satan's salvation was once again warming theological tempers. Author-Philosopher Giovanni Papini, whose Life of Christ (1921) made him famous and who was converted to Roman Catholicism while writing it, made the Devil the subject of his latest (and 40th) book, Il Diavolo. And he decided that there was hope...
...Theological treatises," wrote Papini, "will continue to say no to the doctrine of a total and final reconciliation [between God and the Devil], but the heart, which 'has reasons which reason knows not of,' will go on yearning for and expecting the answer to be yes." If the answer is yes, Hell will also have to close down eventually, and Papini's heart has its reasons for this, too. "Many Christians . . . think that a God who is truly a father cannot torture his children eternally . . . that, at the end of time, that is, the present world, mercy...
Such offbeat opinions from an ordinary author would not be noticed in Vatican circles, at least for years, but Papini's eminence and identification with the Church were enough to draw down upon his book some sharp looks and wry faces. "Shocking and silly," said a Vatican spokesman. "We know little about Hell, but the little we know is precise because it was the Lord himself who told us. First, Hell exists. Second, there is 'unquenchable fire' (Mark 9: 42). Third, it is 'everlasting punishment' (Matthew...
...year-old Author Papini only sits and smiles from the great velvet armchair in his little villa in Florence where he spends his days, partially paralyzed and all but blind. "My relations with the Devil," he says, "are very ancient. They go back at least 50 years . . . The Devil, who plays an important part in the life of men, is unknown. It seems to me important that men should know him intimately." To the suggestion that he is in grievous error and may be ordered to withdraw the book, he points out that he is not engaged in defining doctrine...