Dante's Commedia: Theology as Poetry

8. Caritas and Ecclesiology in Dante’s Heaven of the Sun

8 Caritas and Ecclesiology in Dante’s Heaven of the Sun PA O L A N A S T I “Theologus Dantes, nullius dogmatis expers” [Dante theologian, stranger to no knowledge].1 According to Boccaccio, this epitaph, composed by Giovanni del Virgilio, would have been inscribed on the tomb of Dante, had Guido Novello not died before he could “fare il sepolcro e li porvi li mandati versi” [make the tomb and inscribe the verses].2 The image of Dante as poeta-theologus has always loomed large. Whether in awe of— or in some cases distressed by—his engagement with key theological debates and authorities, his readers have been ready to acknowledge his theoretical expertise and to scrutinize his texts in order to prove it. Since Dante’s death, then, much has been written on his theology; much, it seems, has been understood. Yet even this dimension of the poet’s work still holds some surprises for the modern reader, if they are prepared to reconsider the nature of medieval theology.3 As numerous studies demonstrate , in the Middle Ages theology was not so much a scientific enterprise as an affective meditation on the word of God. The “figurative” language of the Bible was considered the receptacle of all divine mysteries and the only source of wisdom that man had to interrogate in order to achieve an understanding of the earthly and the divine. Medieval theology was therefore steeped in scriptural imagination and lived off the same language that it interpreted.4 The images, the metaphors, and the parables of the Bible were not only the food that nurtured medieval theological thought; they were its very form. Words and theory were so closely intertwined that, from the twelfth century onwards, the understanding of 210 the Bible as literature had become consolidated, so that the scribae dei were seen as the poets of God, and theology as the art of commenting on the poetic expression of the supreme artist.5 Little wonder that Boccaccio should equate poetry with theology when defending those poets who, like Dante, express doctrine in the form of narrative: “Dico che la teologia e la poesia quasi una cosa si possono dire, dove uno medesimo sia il suggetto; anzi dico più, che la teologia niun’altra cosa è che una poesia di Dio. . . . Dunque bene appare, non solamente la poesì essere teologia , ma ancora la teologia essere poesia” [I say that theology and poetry can be considered almost identical when their subjects are identical. In fact, I will go even further and decree that theology is nothing less than the poetry of God. . . . And so it is clear not only that poetry is theology, but also that theology is poetry].6 The nature of medieval theology and its relationship with literature and rhetoric have several methodological and practical implications for those who intend to understand Dante’s theological views. If medieval theology was considered a form of poetic expression, and metaphors and images were taken as signifiers of theological concepts, ideas, and theories , then our attempts at mapping the poet’s uses and abuses of medieval theological discourse seem to open up infinite possibilities. The “technical ” bearings and significance of key images, metaphors, and rhetorical uses can, however, be established through the careful study of theological , liturgical, and homiletical texts of the time. Once the theological “code” has been broken, its “translation” into secular poetry can be analyzed to shed light on the mysterious ways of poetical creation. In fact, the poet’s rewriting of medieval theological discourse carries seeds of originality that occasionally transform his writings into daring theological statements. By examining these seeds of originality one can understand the complex philosophical, eschatological, and religious dimensions of a poem such as the Commedia. This essay focuses on Dante’s ecclesial theology as it emerges in his poetry. My intent is to illustrate the poet’s awareness of, reliance upon, and also autonomy from medieval discourse on the most spiritual aspects of ecclesiology. Rather than looking for the direct sources of his representation , however, I aim to recreate a cross section of the ecclesiological discussion in which he participated, and to demonstrate the interdiscursive relationships that exist between his poetic articulation and medieval theological representations of the Church. Second, I wish to show Caritas and Ecclesiology in Dante’s Heaven of the Sun 211 that Dante deliberately reserved a prominent place in...