Beatrice’s Personalised Theology

This book offers a reading of one of world literature’s most famous female characters. Beatrice’s authority manifests itself in the Commedia despite her being female and uneducated and despite lacking all other trappings of theological authority. Yet she appears in the poem alongside other characters who were real theologians. The book opens up the hermeneutical space between historical theologian and fictional counterpart. Through Beatrice’s presence as lover and beloved, and with her distinctive theological voice, we can understand the core of Dante’s theology. For the pilgrim, the encounter with Beatrice is the hinge around which the entire narrative turns; twentieth-century philosophy can enrich that significant moment by offering a dialogic and perspectival frame. This book provides readers with an encounter with the text which takes seriously the lifeworld of Dante and his sources, but which offers readings that remain vital and responsive to contemporary life and thought.