Dante

[Extract] To speak of Dante's theology of evil and suffering presents two dramatic challenges. The first of these is dramatic in genre: for the Com media -arguably Dante's central contribution on the subject- is dramatic, rather than dogmatic, in its theological explorations. Dante's theology of evil and suffering is expressed through the genre of poetry, for example, through dramatic narrative, dialogue, and imagery. Even the most explicitly doctrinal statements found within the Commedia must be recognized hermeneutically as speech issuing from a character, rather than taken at face value: for the "ideology" of poetic form often seems to complicate, interrogate, or even contradict its ideological content.1 Readers of the Commedia have nevertheless continually embraced the project of interpreting the poem's theological perspectives: not only of evil, suffering, and theodicy, the centering concerns of this volume, but also of sin, divine justice, and the freedom of the will, among many others

Copyright © Matthias Grebe and Johannes Grossl and contributors, 2023