Dante's Christian Ethics
Purgatory and Its Moral Contexts

A major re-appraisal of Dante's Commedia - as it was originally envisaged - as a work of ethics.

George Corbett (Author)

9781108702447, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 February 2023

248 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.59 kg

'Corbett's book is a great scholarly contribution. It adds much to our knowledge of the markedly ethical dimension underpinning Dante's Commedia. Written in a very economical and clear style, Dante's Christian Ethics provides a truly original and solid study of the ethical bearings of the Commedia.' Tomasso De Robertis, Biblioteca Dantesca 5.30 (2022), 379-381

This book is a major re-appraisal of the Commedia as originally envisaged by Dante: as a work of ethics. Privileging the ethical, Corbett increases our appreciation of Dante's eschatological innovations and literary genius. Drawing upon a wider range of moral contexts than in previous studies, this book presents an overarching account of the complex ordering and political programme of Dante's afterlife. Balancing close readings with a lucid overview of Dante's Commedia as an ethical and political manifesto, Corbett cogently approaches the poem through its moral structure. The book provides detailed interpretations of three particularly significant vices - pride, sloth, and avarice - and the three terraces of Purgatory devoted to them. While scholars register Dante's explicit confession of pride, the volume uncovers Dante's implicit confession of sloth and prodigality (the opposing subvice of avarice) through Statius, his moral cypher.

Part I. Ethical and Political Manifesto: 1. Dante's ethical agenda: vital nourishment
2. Dante's political polemic: church and empire
Part II. Reframing Dante's Christian Ethics: 3. Dante's theological purgatory: earthly happiness and eternal beatitude
4. Two traditions of Christian ethics: Aquinas and Peraldus
Part III. Penance and Dante's Purgatory: 5. The terrace of pride, and the poet as preacher
6. The terrace of sloth, and the sin of scholars
7. The terrace of avarice, and love of children.

Subject Areas: Theology [HRLB], Christian theology [HRCM], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]