Dante and Derrida, livre ebook

Discusses Derrida as a religious thinker, reading Dante's Commedia and Derrida's religious writings together.

Discusses Derrida as a religious thinker, reading Dante's Commedia and Derrida's religious writings together.

Reading Dante's Commedia alongside Jacques Derrida's later religious writings, Francis J. Ambrosio explores what these works reveal about religion as a fundamental dynamic of human existence, about freedom and responsibility, and about the significance of writing itself. Ambrosio argues that both the many telling differences between them and the powerful bonds that unite them across centuries show that Dante and Derrida share an identity as religious writers that arises from the human experiences of faith, hope, and love in response to the divine mystery of being human. For both Dante and Derrida, Ambrosio contends, "scriptural religion" reveals that the paradoxical tension of freedom and absolute responsibility must lead to the mystery of forgiveness, a secret that these two share and faithfully keep by surrendering to its necessity to die so as always to begin again anew.

On the Pre-text or As a Pre-face
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Vita Nuova: The Promise of Writing
The Secret of Beginning: A Parable
The Promise of a New Life
Transcribing the Promise

2. Inferno: The Aporia of Forgiveness
Writing in Exile
"I Desire Mercy, not Sacrifice"

3. Purgatorio: Re-turning to the Scene of Forgiveness
Accepting Forgiveness
Forgiving Gives Giving

4. Paradiso: Turning Tears into Smiles
Enjoying Forgiveness
Dante’s Portrait Gallery

Conclusion In Memoriam: A Smile in Passing
Notes
Index