How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem by Rod Dreher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve not read much Rod Dreher, though I have heard that some of his more political writing verges toward snarky (not something I enjoy). I was also warned off this book as being nothing more than whining.
No snark or whining here. Dreher writes a brave exploration of his moral and physical failings against the epic backdrop of the Divine Comedy that is compulsively readable, heartbreaking at points, and ultimately a triumph. The book alternates from memoir to literary criticism (of a watered-down kind) to religious manual. And it all works. All of it.
This is also probably the most approachable and honest look into Orthodox Christian spirituality aimed at non-Christians. Anyone who is interested in experiencing real Christianity, as it should be, will appreciate the way Orthodoxy approaches everyone, no matter how hurt, self-obsessed, and damaged, as worthy of redemption.
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