How Dante can save your life
Subtitle: the life-changing wisdom of history's greatest poem
By: Rod Dreher
Contributors: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321
Edition: First Regan Arts hardcover edition.
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
ISBN-13: 9781941393321
Subjects: Mental Depression; Journalists; Biography
Description: "Following the death of his little sister and the publication of his New York Times bestselling memoir The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Dreher found himself living in the small community of Starhill, Louisiana where he grew up. But instead of the fellowship he hoped to find, he discovered that fault lines within his family had deepened. Dreher spiraled into depression and a stress-related autoimmune disease. Doctors told Dreher that if he didn't find inner peace, he would destroy his health. Soon after, he came across The Divine Comedy in a bookstore and was enchanted by its first lines, which seemed to describe his own condition. In the months that followed Dante helped Dreher understand the mistakes and mistaken beliefs that had torn him down and showed him that he had the power to change his life. Dreher knows firsthand the solace and strength that can be found in Dante's great work, and distills its wisdom for those who are lost in the dark wood of depression, struggling with failure (or success), wrestling with a crisis of faith, alienated from their families or communities, or otherwise enduring the sense of exile that is the human condition. Inspiring, revelatory, and packed with penetrating spiritual, moral, and psychological insights, How Dante Can Save Your Life is a book for people, both religious and secular, who find themselves searching for meaning and healing. Dante told his patron that he wrote his poem to bring readers from misery to happiness. It worked for Rod Dreher. Dante saved Rod Dreher's life--and in this book, Dreher shows you how Dante can save yours."--Amazon.com
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Part I. From the garden to the dark wood. The child is father to the man ; There and back again; title: twice ; The super Tuscan ; The rules of the road; title: Part II. Inferno, or, Why are you broken. The stories of our lives ; Into the black hole ; The tempest ; Uncle Jimmy versus the golden calf ; The life of books, the books of life ; The power of the image ; False gods and heretics ; Is life ever not worth living? ; The great and the good ; Sins of the fathers ; The end of all our exploring ; Out of Egypt; title: Part III. Purgatorio, or How to be healed. Stand up and walk ; The will to love ; The ghost in you ; Pride ; Envy ; Wrath ; Sloth ; Gluttony ; Lust; title: Part IV. Paradiso, or the way things ought to be. Into the light ; Down by the riverside; title: Conclusion: How to make your own Dante pilgrimage.