"The tradition of Christian epics, born out of Biblical stories and Homeric poems, counts among its most influential exponents Dante, Malory, Tasso, Spenser, Milton, Blake, Goethe, and Joyce (along with Virgil as its "founding father"). Balsamo's Rituals of Literature is devoted to Joyce's and Dante's special contributions to this tradition. By highlighting the integrated nature of its typical tropes, Jocye and Dante establish the historical identity of the Christian epic as a distint literary genre." "Rituals of Literature argues that the literary tradition of Christian epics may be intended as theological in purpose and intention. The validation of this thesis is preceded by a critique of Thomas Aquinas's treatment of peotry as an "inferior doctrine," allegedly inadequate to the theological task of doctrinal understanding." "Balsamo shows that the theological quest undertaken by Christian epic writers does not aim at emulating the anagogic speculation of Scholastic theologians. On the other hand, it does not attempt to emulate the inspired knowledge of Humanist or proto-Humanist poets either. The theological quest of the Christian epic writer is oriented, instead, toward surrogating religious experience by means of literary imagination."--BOOK JACKET.