Dante the Theologian

The Dominican master par excellence of the historical method, Pierre Mandonnet (1858-1936) came to Dante as one of the leading Thomists and medievalists of his generation. However, his monograph Dante le theologien (1935) was neglected and largely forgotten, mainly as a result of the lay historian Etienne Gilson's book-length refutation in Dante et la philosophie (1939). This new edition, and the first English translation, re-presents Mandonnet's erudite and thought-provoking monograph to contemporary scholars and Dante enthusiasts. It includes a critical introduction that situates Mandonnet's work in relation to prevailing currents of Dante scholarship in the early twentieth-century, and outlines how it might invite a reappraisal of central features of Dante's thought today. Mandonnet's historically-informed account of Dante the theologian as a preacher, doctrinarian, and distinctively medieval poet, as well as his sophisticated analysis of the theological purpose, method, and content of the Commedia will be an invaluable resource for anyone who seeks to understand Dante's works and their highly contested reception history.