A Quest for God: The Religious World of Dante

(7.5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Dante's Divine Comedy depicts the three realms of the medieval Christian afterlife - Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. It also opens up the extraordinarily rich and diverse world of medieval theology. In their quest for God, medieval theologians questioned everything from the very existence of God to the age of Joseph when he married Mary. Taking Dante as a guide, the module explores how visionary founders (such as St Francis and St Dominic), theologians (such as St Bonaventure and St Thomas Aquinas) and artists searched for, and questioned about, God. Students are introduced to a wide variety of theological texts (all in English translation), and are encouraged to engage directly with some key questions and themes of the period such as the nature of human desire and divine love.