Description: "Richard Hughes Gibson reveals the profound influence of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri on Dorothy L. Sayers, Charles Williams, and C. S. Lewis in this book, adapted from the 2024 Hansen Lectureship series. Gibson follows Sayers, Williams, and Lewis as they read and reflect on the three stages of The Divine Comedy, Dante's famous allegorical trek through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. These essays reveal the urgent psychological, social, and theological lessons that our three authors learned from Dante and, in turn, how those lessons shaped their mature writings"-- Provided by publisher.
Brief description:
Richard Hughes Gibson (PhD, University of Virginia) is professor of English at Wheaton College. He is the author of Forgiveness in Victorian Literature and Paper Electronic Literature and coauthor of Charitable Writing.
Review Quotes:
"This is the book for which many readers of Charles Williams, Dorothy Sayers, and C. S. Lewis have been waiting, and one that richly fulfills their anticipations. With solid scholarship and yet a light touch, the author shows how interest in Danteheld this trio of writers together as a network, motivating, critiquing, quoting, and promoting each other as readers of the medieval poet. With keen insight and a lively manner that belies the difficulty of the task, the author clearly demonstrateshow the complex relations between Williams, Sayers, and Lewis allow the many-sidedness of Dante to emerge today--as poet, storyteller, humorist, and theologian. Always illuminating and interesting, this book is essential reading for all who value the writings of these three modern interpreters of Dante."
--Paul S. Fiddes, professor of systematic theology at the University of Oxford and principal emeritus and senior research fellow at Regent's Park College