Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfilment

by George Corbett

Overview

"Dante and Epicurus seem poles apart. Dante, a committed Christian, depicted in the Commedia a vision of the afterlife and God's divine justice. Epicurus, a pagan philosopher, taught that the soul is mortal and that all religion is vain superstition. And yet Epicurus is, for Dante, not only the quintessential heretic but an ethical ally. The key to this apparent paradox lies in the heterodox dualism - between man's two goals of secular felicity and spiritual beatitude - at the heart of Dante's ethical, political and theological thought. Corbett's full-length treatment of Dante's reception and polemical representation of Epicurus addresses a major gap in the scholarship. Furthermore the study's focus on fault lines in Dante's vision of the afterlife- where the theological tensions implicit in his dualism surface - opens a new way to read the Commedia as a whole in dualistic terms."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351191692
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/02/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	202
File size:	938 KB

About the Author

George Corbett

Table of Contents

Introduction: Homo […] est medium duorum emisperiorum Dante and Epicurus 1. Dante's Reception of Epicureanism 2. Dante's Epicureanism and the Emergence of Secular Man The Epicurean Axis of Inferno X 3. The Secular and Spiritual Hemispheres of Inferno X 4. Epicurean Mortalism and Christian Faith Ante-Purgatory and Dante’s Dualism 5. The Virtuous Pagans 6. The Horizon between Pagan Reason and Christian Faith 7. Conclusion