This dissertation explores the role of the theological virtues—faith, hope, and charity—in Dante Alighieri's Paradiso and Monarchia within the context of the medieval tradition. Focusing on close readings of Dante's texts and possible connections with different authors, I argue that the theological virtues relate to Dante's two major concerns throughout his works: life's ethical dimension and the function of language. The first part includes two chapters in which I trace a history of the virtues, from St. Paul to Remigio dei Girolami, one of the most influential thinkers in Dante's Florence. In the first chapter I analyze the notion of the theological virtues and their implications in St. Paul's epistles and in some representative figures of the Patristic tradition: St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great. In the second chapter, I focus on Scholasticism and its influence on Florentine thought. In doing this, I take into account other three authors: St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, and the aforementioned Remigio dei Girolami. I argue that all these authors had a decisive impact on Dante's understanding of the virtues. The second part is undoubtedly the kernel of this dissertation. It is comprised of three chapters, respectively, on faith, hope, and charity in Paradiso. The main texts discussed in this part are Paradiso 24, 25, and 26, although I also point to other cantos and medieval texts that help us to grasp Dante's complex theological discourse. In Chapter Three, "The Dialectics of Faith," I argue that Dante presents the theological virtue of faith within the context of "wrong interpretative choices"—heresy—and a highly rational language of dialectics. In Chapter Four, "The Rain of Hope," I link Dante's understanding of hope to the question of exile—individual and communitarian—and a language of nature. Additionally, I mention some aspects of the modern movement of a "philosophy of hope" in which I observe some seeds of Dante's notion of this virtue, with authors such as Pieper, Guardini, Moltmann, Laín Entralgo, Marcel, Bloch, among others. Lastly, in Chapter Five, "The Language of Charity," I explore the multiple facets of Dante's perfect love in Paradiso. Particularly central to this chapter is the relationship of caritas and ethics, as well as the interaction between interior and exterior languages. I place those elements in a general medieval context by referring to authors such as Arnaldus de Villanova, Uguccione da Pisa, Johannes de Hauvilla, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, among others. The third and final part deals with the relationship between political and theological virtues in the political treatise Monarchia and in Paradiso. In Chapter Six, I argue that Dante's system of virtues in Monarchia supports the main thesis of the text, the coordination of Church and State. The dual interaction of the virtues that Dante proposes—namely, separation in matters of government and subordination of political virtues to theological virtues in ethics—is typical of the so-called via media which was endorsed by an important tradition of medieval thinkers. Those thinkers maintained the idea of a potestas indirecta, in opposition to the supporters of a potestas directa of the Church in temporal matters. I claim that Dante enters that debate in Monarchia by establishing an intellectual dialogue with authors such as Aristotle, Macrobius, Giles of Rome, William of Auxerre, St. Albert the Great, Boniface VIII, St. Thomas Aquinas, Ptolomy of Lucca, James of Viterbo, Augustinus Triumphus, Remigio dei Girolami, John of Paris, and certain anonymous sources. The end of the chapter explores the relationship between the virtues in Paradiso, which is defined by the notions of harmony and ethical perfection. I conclude the dissertation with an appendix that explores some examples of the visual representation of the virtues during the Middle Ages. Besides a general overview of the different kinds of representations, I closely analyze the image of the virtues in three Fourteenth-century Italian manuscripts of the Commedia which present similar features.