Winter 2013/Pasadena
TC862/562
Dyrness
TC862/562: DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY IN THE CONTEXT OF MEDIEVAL ART AND THEOLOGY.
William Dyrness.
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.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this course students will be familiar with some of the major theological perspectives on culture; in terms of these will develop their own theological and critical framework; and finally will employ this framework in interpreting and engaging theological texts and trends.
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:
Dante Alighieri. The Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. Knopf, 1995. ISBN: 9780679433132. $26.00.
Hawkins, Peter S. Dante’s Testaments: Essays in Scriptural Imagination. Stanford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 978-0804737012. $29.95.
Jacoff, Rachel, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Dante. Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780521605816. $29.99
RECOMMENDED READING:
See syllabus for recommended texts.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT: In addition to reading the Comedy and taking part in the weekly discussions, students will be required to write a research paper on a portion of the Comedy in relation to a theme in medieval art or theology. The length of master’s level students’ papers will be appropriately adjusted from that required of doctoral students.
PREREQUISITES: For master’s level students: written (email) permission of the professor.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Elective.