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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.'
Sommario
Introduction; 1. Theology and Poetry; Hell: 2. Hell: Dante and Aquinas; 3. Does Dante's Hell Exist?; Purgatory: 4. Purgation and Purgatory; 5. Hope, Memory, and the Earthly Paradise; Paradise: 6. Paradise and Paideia; 7. The End of Poetry.
Info autore
Denys Turner is Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology at Yale University. His widely-acclaimed books include The Darkness of God (Cambridge University Press, 1995, which famously separated medieval mystical thought from contemporary ideas of experiential spirituality), Julian of Norwich, Theologian (Yale University Press, 2013) and Thomas Aquinas (also Yale University Press, 2014). This new book is a loosely related companion to the latter titles, completing a trilogy.
Riassunto
This compelling new work argues that appreciation of the Divine Comedy has been hindered by lack of understanding of how Dante used theology to articulate his ideas. He should be understood not just as a poet – indeed the 'Supreme Poet', as Italians call him – but also as a remarkable theologian.
