Conversion and Narrative: Reading and Religious Authority in Medieval Polemic

Dedication Page

For my parents, Terry and Joyce Szpiech, with gratitude and love E come quei che con lena affannata, uscito fuor del pelago a la riva si volge a l’acqua perigliosa e guata, così l’animo mio, ch’ancor fuggiva, si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo che non lasciò già mai persona viva. [And just as he, who with labored breathing has escaped from the deep onto the shore, turns to the perilous waters and gazes, so my mind, which was still in flight, turned back to look again at the pass that no living person ever left.] —da n t e , Inferno I, 22–27 ...