Foster, Kenelm. “Religion and Philosophy in Dante.” In The Mind of Dante, edited by U. Limentani, 47–78. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.

Excerpt:

We commonly think of Dante as both a religious and a philosophical poet; and, so doing, we commonly assume that there is a difference of some kind between poetry on the one hand and religion and philosophy on the other; we imply that to be a poet is not the same as to be religious or philosophical. The distinction is supported by ordinary experience and I need not labour it here. But the phrase ‘a religious and philosophical poet’ also implies some difference between religion and philosophy; otherwise, why two epithets rather than one? And this point must detain me a little before proceeding to the task assigned me by the title of my paper; for clearly I cannot assume, at this stage, that the relation between religion and philosophy in Dante’s work is either an identity or a non-identity, or, if a non-identity, either a harmony or tension; my task being to show just which relation is best supported by evidence. And we need, to start with, some working definition of the two terms whose relationship is in question.

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