Reading Dante's Commedia through Augustine's Hermeneutics of caritas

The aim of this research is to consider Dante’s Christology in terms of Augustine’s hermeneutical practice. This thesis examines four figures in Dante’s Commedia who exemplify reading through proper and improper hermeneutical approaches and how their approaches are related to good and bad forms of love, which Augustine identifies as caritas and cupiditas: Francesca and Virgil from the Inferno, Statius from the Purgatorio, and Piccarda from the Paradiso. This thesis also examines moments in which Dante invites readers to engage with the Commedia hermeneutically. In applying Augustine’s hermeneutics of caritas, as presented in De doctrina Christiana, to a reading of Dante’s Commedia, this research considers how the Commedia directs readers to conduct themselves toward God and neighbour in accordance with Christ’s teachings. Augustine’s rules for Biblical interpretation are founded on his gloss on Jesus Christ’s words to love and enjoy God on God’s own account and to love and enjoy neighbours in relation to God (De doctrina Christiana 3.10.16). Christ’s commandments set the standard for Christian morality and provide the hermeneutical key to understanding Scripture and the ideal form of love that Christ himself paradigmatically exemplifies. Those who follow Augustine’s rules of interpretation know that all of Scripture reveals these two commandments and offers examples of how to live Christologically in accordance with these teachings. Augustine’s rules for interpretation were one of the prevailing approaches to hermeneutics in the Middle Ages and one which, when applied to a reading of Dante’s Commedia, illuminates the same Christocentric teaching.