DESCRIPTION: This is a 6-unit seminar for doctoral students, also offered at
the 500-level as a 4-unit course open to a very limited number of master's
level students by special permission. The seminar will read Dante's Divine
Comedy and explore its relation to fourteenth- and fifteenth-century art
and theology. Student preparation and discussion will focus critical attention
on the themes and characteristics of Dante's work as an expression of the
medieval figural imagination and its consequent understanding of theology.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: The Divine Comedy is arguably the
most important expression of the medieval worldview and an important influence
on subsequent art and even theology. Its influence and importance continues to
this day not only in the Catholic tradition, but, in the current aesthetic
renaissance, in the Protestant world as well. The Comedy stands as a
monument of integration between deep theological truth, the believer's
spiritual life, and the larger movements of history and culture.
COURSE FORMAT: The seminar will meet weekly for three-hour sessions. Each week
students will read sections of the Comedy. After discussion of that
section students (perhaps a doctoral student paired with a master's level
student) will consider a text from that section of the Comedy in its
relation to some theological theme or work (or works) of visual art.
REQUIRED READING: