Dante and a Poet's Journey in Hope with Denys Turner

Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute on April 11, 2024 at the University of Chicago. Cosponsored by the University of Chicago Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Medieval Studies Workshop.
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Praised for its evocative treatment of heaven and hell, Dante’s Commedia is a significant work of theology. Denys Turner explains how Dante accomplishes by means of poetry what the formal theological treatises of the Middle Ages demonstrate through prosaic inference and proof. Poetry, Turner argues, is the most natural language to articulate the “journey of the soul into God,” and a point of entry into the mystery of the divine. Dante’s poetry discloses the theological significance of hope in the pilgrim’s journey towards the “abiding city.”