Redefining Faith in Dante’s "Divine Comedy"

Redefining Faith in Dante’s Divine Comedy advances a philosophical interpretation of Dante’s poem as a sustained reflection on faith, interpretation, and ethical judgment. Against readings that treat faith primarily as doctrinal assent, the book argues that the Divine Comedy reconfigures faith as a mode of creative and interpretive engagement grounded in practical judgment (phronēsis) and intellectual humility. Through close readings of all three canticles, the study examines Dante’s dramatic depictions of figures such as Farinata degli Uberti, Ulysses, Cato of Utica, Statius, Virgil, and Beatrice, showing how the poem both represents and cultivates the interpretive virtues needed to navigate moral, theological, and political uncertainty. The book brings intellectual history, literary analysis, and philosophical hermeneutics into conversation with classical and medieval pagan, Christian, and Islamic philosophical traditions. It traces how Dante’s poem dramatizes problems of heresy, salvation, personal immortality, atonement, and freedom of will, while resisting theological closure in favor of sustained ethical reflection. In doing so, Redefining Faith in Dante’s Divine Comedy examines how Dante dramatizes the virtues and failures involved in interpretation: how we judge, how we misread, how we cling to certainty, and how we might learn to read and live with greater attentiveness.