Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by Dante since my first years at university. For me, reading Dante was the beginning of a journey, opening up a rich world of theology, philosophy, art, literature, science, and culture. As Professor of Theology at the University of St Andrews, I especially enjoy facilitating students’ first encounters with Dante, and seeing how Dante so often leads them, also, to a deeper appreciation of some of the greatest thinkers and makers of our civilisation, from Aristotle and Virgil to Aquinas and Giotto. 


I wrote

Dante's Christian Ethics: Purgatory and Its Moral Contexts

By George Corbett,

Book cover of Dante's Christian Ethics: Purgatory and Its Moral Contexts

What is my book about?

In Dante’s Christian Ethics, I re-present the Commedia as Dante originally intended it as a ‘work of ethics’.…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Two Dantes, and Other Studies

George Corbett Why did I love this book?

This book was a revelation to me in first studying Dante. Here was an author taking Dante’s questions, and his answers to those questions, seriously. A brilliant Cambridge Italianist and a Dominican priest, Kenelm Foster is passionately engaged with the theology of Dante.

In this book, he provides his celebrated account of the ‘Two Dantes,’ one overly committed to paganism, the other devoted to Christianity. He also develops his comparison between Aquinas’s theory of implicit faith (according to which pagans may be saved) and Dante’s strange invention of a section of limbo in which virtuous pagans are, it seems, eternally damned. Although I do not hold now to all of Foster’s provocative assumptions or conclusions, I still find his mode of questioning Dante, and reading Dante historically and theologically, inspirational and exhilarating.  

Book cover of Dante the Philosopher

George Corbett Why did I love this book?

One of the foremost twentieth-century historians of medieval philosophy, Étienne Gilson took a lifelong interest in Dante, publishing Dante et la philosophie in 1939 (the translation Dante the Philosopher was published in 1946). The book is Gilson’s magisterial attempt to situate Dante’s thought in relation to the competing intellectual currents of his time.

What makes the book particularly fascinating for me is that it is also an anti-thesis, a reaction against another (arguably even better) book, the Dominican Pierre Mandonnet’s Dante le théologien, published in 1935 (a new edition with English translation, Dante the Theologian, will be published shortly). In reading Gilson’s volume, we enter into key debates not only about Dante’s thought but, also, about the very nature of Catholic philosophy and theology. 

By Étienne Gilson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dante the Philosopher as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.


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Book cover of I Meant to Tell You

I Meant to Tell You By Fran Hawthorne,

When Miranda’s fiancé, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke that Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. In fact, the real threat emerges when Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for…

Book cover of Dante's Commedia: Theology as Poetry

George Corbett Why did I love this book?

This collaborative volume, resulting from a seminal conference held in Cambridge in 2003, seeks to draw twenty-first-century readers’ attention again towards Dante as a theologian. It is a wonderful medley of essays on Dante and theology, with contributions by Dante scholars key to this theological reappraisal, including Robin Kirkpatrick, Peter Hawkins, and Christian Moevs. The volume concludes with David Ford’s clarion call for theologians to turn to, and learn from, Dante today: ‘Dante as Inspiration for Twenty-First-Century Theology.’  

By Vittorio Montemaggi (editor), Matthew Treherne (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dante's Commedia as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Dante's Commedia: Theology as Poetry, an international group of theologians and Dante scholars provide a uniquely rich set of perspectives focused on the relationship between theology and poetry in the Commedia. Examining Dante's treatment of questions of language, personhood, and the body; his engagement with the theological tradition he inherited; and the implications of his work for contemporary theology, the contributors argue for the close intersection of theology and poetry in the text as well as the importance of theology for Dante studies. Through discussion of issues ranging from Dante's use of imagery of the Church to the significance…


Book cover of The Cambridge Companion to Dante's 'Commedia'

George Corbett Why did I love this book?

Just as Dante needed good guides on his epic journey through the afterlife, so contemporary readers typically need reliable companions on their own journeys into Dante’s poem. The best thing, I find, is to read Dante with, and alongside, his commentators. An ideal way to do this is through the invaluable online Dartmouth Dante Project and Dante Lab, which provide the entire texts of more than 75 of these commentaries in a customisable digital workspace. But if you want a book to hand, The Cambridge Companion to Dante’s ‘Commedia’ provides a really helpful overview of Dante’s masterpiece and its core narrative, linguistic, cultural, and doctrinal features, as well as useful introductions to the poem’s composition and reception. 

By Zygmunt G. Barański (editor), Simon Gilson (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Cambridge Companion to Dante's 'Commedia' as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This newly commissioned volume presents a focused overview of Dante's masterpiece, the Commedia, offering readers of today wide-ranging insights into the poem and its core features. Leading scholars discuss matters of structure, narrative, language and style, characterization, doctrine, and politics, in chapters that make their own contributions to Dante criticism by raising problems and questions that call for renewed attention, while investigating contextual concerns as well as the current state of criticism about the poem. The Commedia is also placed in a variety of cultural and historical contexts through accounts of the poem's transmission and reception that explore both its…


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Book cover of Cold Peace: A Novel of the Berlin Airlift, Part I

Cold Peace By Helena P. Schrader,

It is 1948 in Berlin. The economy is broken, the currency worthless, and the Russian bear is preparing to swallow its next victim. In the ruins of Hitler's capital, former RAF officers and a woman pilot start an air ambulance company that offers a glimmer of hope. Yet when a…

Book cover of Dante in Context

George Corbett Why did I love this book?

Some of the most original scholarship on Dante in the past fifty or so years has been historical and contextual. This research enables us to understand Dante’s texts more fully in their own immediate contexts, of course, but it also reflects the fact that many readers of Dante become increasingly interested in the wider contexts – ethical, political, philosophical, theological, economic, literary, cultural, etc. – that Dante’s own poetic masterpiece opens up. In thirty chapters, the collaborative volume Dante in Context exemplifies the best of this historical and contextual work, and provides an invaluable introduction to the world of Dante.   

By Zygmunt G. Barański (editor), Lino Pertile (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dante in Context as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the past seven centuries Dante has become world renowned, with his works translated into multiple languages and read by people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. This volume brings together interdisciplinary essays by leading, international scholars to provide a comprehensive account of the historical, cultural and intellectual context in which Dante lived and worked: from the economic, social and political scene to the feel of daily life; from education and religion to the administration of justice; from medicine to philosophy and science; from classical antiquity to popular culture; and from the dramatic transformation of urban spaces to the explosion…


Explore my book 😀

Dante's Christian Ethics: Purgatory and Its Moral Contexts

By George Corbett,

Book cover of Dante's Christian Ethics: Purgatory and Its Moral Contexts

What is my book about?

In Dante’s Christian Ethics, I re-present the Commedia as Dante originally intended it as a ‘work of ethics’. Opening up Dante’s worldview for the contemporary reader, I draw particular attention to the influence of William Peraldus on Dante’s moral theology. I provide overviews of the moral structure and political vision of Dante’s afterlife which, I hope, will help orientate readers’ understanding of the poem as a whole. I also provide detailed interpretations of Dante’s presentation of three especially significant vices – pride, sloth, and avarice – and I uncover, for the first time, Dante's implicit confession of sloth and prodigality through Statius, his moral cypher. My book’s privileging of the ethical also leads the reader to appreciate more fully, I hope, Dante’s eschatological originality and literary brilliance.  

Book cover of The Two Dantes, and Other Studies
Book cover of Dante the Philosopher
Book cover of Dante's Commedia: Theology as Poetry

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