Dante the Theologian

Description

An understanding of Dante the theologian as distinct from Dante the poet has been neglected in an appreciation of Dante's work as a whole. That is the starting-point of this vital new book. In giving theology fresh centrality, the author argues that theologians themselves should find, when they turn to Dante Alighieri, a compelling resource: whether they do so as historians of fourteenth-century Christian thought, or as interpreters of the religious issues of our own times. Expertly guiding his readers through the structure and content of the Commedia, Denys Turner reveals – in pacy and muscular prose – how Dante's aim for his masterpiece is to effect what it signifies. It is this quasi-sacramental character that renders it above all a theological treatise: whose meaning is intelligible only through poetry. Turner's Dante 'knows that both poetry and theology are necessary to the essential task and that each without the other is deficient.' Copyright_page Dedication Epigraph Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1 Theology and Poetry Part I Hell 2 Hell: Dante and Aquinas 3 Inferno as Anti-narrative Part II Purgatory 4 Purgatory and Purgation 5 Hope, Memory, and the Earthly Paradise Part III Paradise 6 Paradise and Paideia 7 Paradise and the End of Poetry Select Bibliography Index