Dante Alighieri - Dantes Commedia: theology as poetry

DANTES
Commedia

THEOLOGY AS POETRY

THE WILLIAM AND KATHERINE DEVERS SERIES IN DANTE STUDIES

Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and Christian Moevs, editors
Simone Marchesi, associate editor | Ilaria Marchesi, assistant editor

VOLUME 10

Petrarch and Dante: Anti-Dantism, Metaphysics, Tradition
edited by Zygmunt G. Baraski and Theodore J. Cachey, Jr.

VOLUME 9

The Ancient Flame: Dante and the Poets
Winthrop Wetherbee

VOLUME 8

Accounting for Dante: Urban Readers and Writers in Late Medieval Italy
Justin Steinberg

VOLUME 7

Experiencing the Afterlife: Soul and Body in Dante and Medieval Culture
Manuele Gragnolati

VOLUME 6

Understanding Dante
John A. Scott

VOLUME 5

Dante and the Grammar of the Nursing Body
Gary P. Cestaro

VOLUME 4

The Fiore and the Detto dAmore: A Late 13th-Century Italian Translation of the Roman de la Rose, attributable to Dante
Translated, with introduction and notes,
by Santa Casciani and Christopher Kleinhenz

VOLUME 3

The Design in the Wax: The Structure of the Divine Comedy and Its Meaning
Marc Cogan

VOLUME 2

The Fiore in Context: Dante, France, Tuscany
edited by Zygmunt G. Baraski and Patrick Boyde

VOLUME 1

Dante Now: Current Trends in Dante Studies
edited by Theodore J. Cachey, Jr.

DANTES
Commedia

THEOLOGY AS POETRY

edited by
VITTORIO MONTEMAGGI

and
MATTHEW TREHERNE

University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2010 by University of Notre Dame

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dantes Commedia : theology as poetry / Vittorio Montemaggi and Matthew Treherne, editors.
p. cm. (The William and Katherine Devers series in Dante studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-268-03519-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-268-03519-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Dante Alighieri, 12651321. Divina commedia. 2. Dante Alighieri, 12651321Religion. 3. Theology in literature. I. Montemaggi, Vittorio. II. Treherne, Matthew.
PQ4416.D392010
851'.1dc22

2009053254

ISBN 9780268162009

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources

This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at .

CONTENTS

Vittorio Montemaggi and Matthew Treherne

1
Polemics of Praise: Theology as Text, Narrative, and Rhetoric in Dantes Commedia

Robin Kirkpatrick

2
All Smiles: Poetry and Theology in Dantes Commedia

Peter S. Hawkins

3
In Unknowability as Love: The Theology of Dantes Commedia

Vittorio Montemaggi

4
The Poetry and Poetics of the Creation

Piero Boitani

5
Liturgical Personhood: Creation, Penitence, and Praise in the Commedia

Matthew Treherne

6
Dantes Commedia and the Body of Christ

Oliver Davies

7
Dantes Davidic Journey: From Sinner to Gods Scribe

Theresa Federici

8
Caritas and Ecclesiology in Dantes Heaven of the Sun

Paola Nasti

9
Neoplatonic Metaphysics and Imagination in Dantes Commedia

Douglas Hedley

10
Il punto che mi vinse: Incarnation, Revelation, and Self-Knowledge in Dantes Commedia

Christian Moevs

11
How to Do Things with Words: Poetry as Sacrament in Dantes Commedia

Denys Turner

John Took

David F. Ford

The William and Katherine Devers Program in Dante Studies at the University of Notre Dame supports rare book acquisitions in the universitys John A. Zahm Dante collections, funds an annual visiting professorship in Dante studies, and supports electronic and print publication of scholarly research in the field. In collaboration with the Medieval Institute at the university, the Devers program has initiated a series dedicated to the publication of the most significant current scholarship in the field of Dante Studies.

In keeping with the spirit that inspired the creation of the Devers program, the series takes Dante as a focal point that draws together the many disciplines and lines of inquiry that constitute a cultural tradition without fixed boundaries. Accordingly, the series hopes to illuminate Dantes position at the center of contemporary critical debates in the humanities by reflecting both the highest quality of scholarly achievement and the greatest diversity of critical perspectives.

The series publishes works on Dante from a wide variety of disciplinary viewpoints and in diverse scholarly genres, including critical studies, commentaries, editions, translations, and conference proceedings of exceptional importance. The series is supervised by an international advisory board composed of distinguished Dante scholars and is published regularly by the University of Notre Dame Press. The Dolphin and Anchor device that appears on publications of the Devers series was used by the great humanist, grammarian, editor, and typographer Aldus Manutius (14491515), in whose 1502 edition of Dante (second issue) and all subsequent editions it appeared. The device illustrates the ancient proverb Festina lente, Hurry up slowly.

Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and Christian Moevs, editors

Advisory Board

Albert Russell Ascoli, Berkeley

Zygmunt G. Baraski, Cambridge

Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia

Piero Boitani, Rome

Patrick Boyde, Cambridge

Alison Cornish, Michigan

Christopher Kleinhenz, Wisconsin

Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale

Lino Pertile, Harvard

Michelangelo Picone, Zurich

John A. Scott, Western Australia

Tibor Wlassics, Virginia

We express our sincere gratitude to the friends, colleagues, and institutions who in different ways have supported Dantes Commedia: Theology as Poetry.

In particular, we acknowledge the generous financial support received from the Burney Fund of the Faculty of Divinity and from the Department of Italian of the University of Cambridge for the conference on which the present volume is based. We are intensely grateful to the Faculty of Divinity and the Department of Italian for their continued support throughout the project as a whole. We are likewise grateful to Robinson College, Cambridgeespecially the Warden, David Yates, Mary Fuller and the conference office, and the College stafffor providing a congenial environment for the projects initial stages and for the conference. Special thanks are also due to Gillian Burrows, Ravit Capauner, Carlo Cogliati, Dee, Rosalind Paul, and Alessia Ronchetti for their invaluable help in the organization and running of the conference,