Dante and the Practice of Humility

A Theological Commentary on the Divine Comedy

Author: Rachel K. Teubner

Examines humility as a key to the Comedy's poetry, demonstrating its theological vibrancy for today's readers.

Examines humility as theologically central to the Comedy. Canto by canto, Teubner demonstrates the many means by which the poem's theology responds to contemporary readers' concerns. Readers will benefit richly from this gracefully written companion, which also introduces theologians to recent scholarship exploring Dante's religious thought.

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Summary

Examines humility as a key to the Comedy's poetry, demonstrating its theological vibrancy for today's readers.

Description

In this book, Rachel Teubner offers an exploration of humility in Dante's Divine Comedy, arguing that the poem is an ascetical exercise concerned with training its author gradually in the practice of humility, rather than being a reflection of authorial hubris. A contribution to recent scholarship that considers the poem to be a work of self-examination, her volume investigates its scriptural, literary, and liturgical sources, also offering fresh feminist perspectives on its theological challenges. Teubner demonstrates how the poetry of the Comedy is theologically significant, focusing especially on the poem's definition of humility as ethically and artistically meaningful. Interrogating the text canto by canto, she also reveals how contemporary tools of literary analysis can offer new insights into its meaning. Undergraduate and novice readers will benefit from this companion, just as theologians and scholars of medieval religion will be introduced to a growing body of scholarship exploring Dante's religious thought.

Critic Reviews

'Dante and the Practice of Humility enters and refreshes a field of Dantean debate. It assembles evidence from a great range of medieval sources while offering a comprehensive but subtle account of Dante's poetry. Equally, the volume will stand as an important contribution to theological debate … Its clarity and elegance not only make the piece a pleasure to read, but are also functional in allowing the author to move both gracefully and efficiently from point to point, covering both conceptual and textual complication with notable lightness of touch.' Peter S. Hawkins, Professor of Religion and Literature Emeritus, Yale Divinity School

About the Author

Rachel K. Teubner is a Research Fellow in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry. She has held fellowships at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and the Institute for Critical Inquiry in Berlin. Her current research explores genre, gender and theology in women's lyric writings during the long Reformation.