Davis, Derek. “Seeds of the Secular State: Dante’s Political Philosophy as Seen in the ‘De Monarchia.’” Journal of Church and State 33, no. 2 (1991): 327–46.

Excerpt:

Dante Alighieri is among those rare poets who have profoundly stirred the imaginations of people everywhere since he penned works like The Divine Comedy and Vita Nuoca seven centuries ago. Few people today, however, know Dante as a political philosopher whose seminal thinking in many ways set the course for the development of Western political theory, De Monarchia, a work that today must be recognized for its significant contribution to the birth and growth of the secular state as a viable model of political order.

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