Religion

This chapter explores the way in which Dante forges an original form of religiosity in his work by embracing Franciscan and apocalyptic ideas. It focuses on three aspects: the prophetic spirit that animates Dante’s critique of the Church and his call for spiritual renewal; his emphasis on the transformative power of prayer and its role in the poet’s construction of his spiritual authority; and the celebration of the female role in salvation through the figures of Lady Poverty and Beatrice. Franciscan thought on Poverty, from Joachim of Flora to radicals such as Ubertino da Casale and Peter John Olivi, informs Dante’s theological (but also political and spiritual) reflections on religion. Moreover, Dante’s personal exile becomes a metaphor for Christian peregrinations on earth, a figura of homo viator’s pilgrimage toward the final destination in the afterlife.