ABSTRACT
In Dante's poetry, the theological doctrines of Trinity and Incarnation appear as inseparable and serve as paradigms that guide Dante's invention of a lyrical poetics. In straining toward theological transcendence, Dante develops both a poetics of self-reflexivity of the Trinity and a poetics of thought becoming sensuous in the poetic word based on the model of the Word made flesh in the Incarnation. Dante teaches the reader to understand the lyrical self-reflexivity of language as specifically "theological" in nature. Dante's world-shattering insight is encapsulated in the lesson that self-reflection can be a reflection of transcendence, a vehicle to a beyond of language opening it to others and even to a divine other. Self-reflection turns out to be quite the opposite of a closed circle of vanity that collapses the self upon itself. The Trinity is a model of self-love that manifests its fertility in creating others in an act of unlimited love.
