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Dante's Theology1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2009

Philip Schaff
Philip Schaff
Affiliation:
Professor of Church History, Union Theological Seminary, New York City.
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Extract

The Divina Commedia, that “sacred poem”—

“To which both heaven and earth have set their hand,”

has an equal attraction for the poet, the historian, the philosopher, and the theologian. It is a mirror of mediaeval Christianity and civilization, and resembles a Gothic cathedral which lays all sciences and arts under contribution and fills the mind with wonder and awe. It has justly been called “the mediaeval miracle of song.” No poem can be compared with it for general and abiding interest except the Book of Job, and Goethe's Faust.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the American Society of Church History , Volume 2 , January 1890 , pp. 53 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Church History 1890

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References

1 In his unwritten address before the American Society of Church History, Dr. Schaff gave a brief survey of Dante's journey through the Inferno, Purgalorio, and Paradiso, and explained the spiritual and perpetual meaning of that “mystic, unfathomable song.” He has elaborated two essays on the Life and Works of Dante, which are too long for this volume, but will appear in a book on Literature and Poetry (to be published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1890.)