Religion and Literature

English Works of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester: Sermons and Other Writings 1520 to 1535

John Fisher

Cecilia A. Hatt (ed.)

John Fisher (1469–1535), appointed bishop of Rochester by Henry VII, was one of the most distinguished churchmen and humanists of the early sixteenth century and Reformation period. A ... More

John Fisher (1469–1535), appointed bishop of Rochester by Henry VII, was one of the most distinguished churchmen and humanists of the early sixteenth century and Reformation period. A friend of Erasmus’, he introduced the study of Greek and Hebrew to the University of Cambridge, of which he was Chancellor, and was beheaded by Henry VIII for his opposition to the Act of Supremacy. He was a notable preacher and author of the first sermon‐sequence to be printed in English. This edition contains introductions and a critical commentary to the English writings of the last 15 years of Fisher's life, including his two anti‐Lutheran sermons, pastoral sermons, and devotional works composed while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. Less

Entangled Voices: Genre and the Religious Construction of the Self

Frederick J. Ruf

This book aims to bring about an understanding of how the concepts of “voice” and “genre” function in texts, especially religious texts. To this end, it joins literary theorists in the ... More

This book aims to bring about an understanding of how the concepts of “voice” and “genre” function in texts, especially religious texts. To this end, it joins literary theorists in the discussion about “narrative.” The book rejects the idea of genre as a fixed historical form that serves as a template for readers and writers; instead, it suggests that we imagine different genres, whether narrative, lyric, or dramatic, as the expression of different voices. Each voice, the book asserts, possesses different key qualities: embodiment, sociality, contextuality, and opacity in the dramatic voice; intimacy, limitation, urgency in lyric; and a “magisterial” quality of comprehensiveness and cohesiveness in narrative. These voices are models for our selves, composing an unruly and unstable multiplicity of selves. The book applies its theory of “voice” and “genre” to five texts: Dineson's Out of Africa, Donne's Holy Sonnets, Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria. Through these literary works, the book discerns the detailed ways in which a text constructs a voice and, in the process, a self. More importantly, this book demonstrates that this process is a religious one, fulfilling the function that religions traditionally assume: that of defining the self and its world. Less

Gemstone of Paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram's “Parzival”

G. Ronald Murphy

The story of the Grail, usually identified as some kind of mystical vessel, has gripped the imaginations of millions since it first appeared in several medieval romances. Of these, ... More

The story of the Grail, usually identified as some kind of mystical vessel, has gripped the imaginations of millions since it first appeared in several medieval romances. Of these, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Middle High German Parzival (c. 1210) is generally recognized as the most complex and beautiful. Strangely, in Parzival, the Grail is identified as a stone rather than a cup or dish. This oddity is usually seen as just another mystery, further evidence of the difficulty of discerning the true sources of the Grail legend. This book seeks to illuminate this mystery and to enable a far better appreciation of Wolfram's insight into the nature of the Grail and its relationship to the Crusades. The Grail, container of the sacred body and blood of Christ, Wolfram was saying, was where God said it would be: on the altar at the consecration of the Mass. Wolfram's “sacred stone” was none other than a consecrated altar, precious by virtue of the sacrament but also, this book argues, by virtue of the material from which it was made: a green gem, one of the precious stones associated with the rivers of Paradise. The book explores what it signifies for the Grail to be a translucent gemstone and an altar made portable only by a woman. Wolfram's stone is a sacramental reference to the stone the Crusaders fought to obtain — the Holy Sepulchre. Parzival, the book states, was intended as an argument against continued efforts by Latin Christians to recover the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by force of arms. In Wolfram's story, warring Christian and Muslim brothers are brought together in peace by the power of Wolfram's Holy Grail. Less

Graham Greene's Catholic Imagination

Mark Bosco

This book focuses on the importance of Catholicism in Graham Greene’s life and writings. In his 67 years of writing, Catholicism was always the thread that bound his literary ... More

This book focuses on the importance of Catholicism in Graham Greene’s life and writings. In his 67 years of writing, Catholicism was always the thread that bound his literary preoccupations into a recognizable pattern. The chapters in this volume explore the development of Greene’s Catholic imagination by situating him in the two historical and theological milieus that dominate 20th century Catholicism: the Catholic revival in the first half of the century, and the Vatican II and post-Vatican II concerns that found new expression in his later novels. Less

Gregorius: An Incestuous Saint in Medieval Europe and Beyond

Brian Murdoch

The story of the apocryphal pope and saint Gregorius was extremely popular throughout the Middle Ages and later in Europe and beyond. In a memorable narrative Gregorius is born from an ... More

The story of the apocryphal pope and saint Gregorius was extremely popular throughout the Middle Ages and later in Europe and beyond. In a memorable narrative Gregorius is born from an incestuous relationship between a noble brother and sister, and is set out to sea with (unspecific) details of his origin. He is found and brought up by an abbot, but when revealed as a foundling, leaves as a knight to seek his origins; he rescues his mother’s land from attack, and marries her. On discovering his sin he undertakes years of penance on a rocky islet, which he survives miraculously. An angel sends emissaries from Rome to find him after the death of the pope, the key to his shackles is equally miraculously discovered, and he becomes pope. This hagiographical romance is not a variation upon Oedipus; it uses the invisible sin of incest as a parallel both for original sin (the sin of Adam and Eve) and for actual sin. It combines the universal theme of the quest for identity with the problem not of guilt as such, which is inevitable, but of how sinful humanity can cope if it avoids despair. The story probably originated in medieval England or France, but is found in versions from Iceland and Ireland to Iraq and Egypt, in verse and prose, in full-scale literary forms or in much-reduced folktales, in theological as well as secular contexts, and more or less continuously down to and even beyond. It is a truly European theme. Less

Ibn `Arabī’s Mystical Poetics

Denis E. McAuley

Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn `Arabī (1165–1240) has been one of the most influential figures in the development of Sufism. Although his prose works have been hugely influential, his prolific poetry ... More

Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn `Arabī (1165–1240) has been one of the most influential figures in the development of Sufism. Although his prose works have been hugely influential, his prolific poetry has received very little attention. This book contains an in-depth analysis of one collection of his poetry, the Būlāq Dīwān. Chapter 1 argues that the Dīwān has been neglected because of its complex and unusual nature, which confounds readers’ expectations. Chapter 2 discusses Ibn `Arabī’s understanding of poetics, which is closely intertwined with his metaphysics and poetic inspiration: the rhythms of poetry echo those of creation, and meaning combines with form just as the spirit descends on matter. The following chapters embark on a close reading of selected poems, exploring such peculiar verse forms as poetic responses to chapters of the Qur’an; imitations of earlier poets; a set of poems using the same metre and rhyme; poems that use only one rhyme word; and cycles of acrostic poems. Frequent comparisons are made with other medieval Arabic, Persian, and European poets, many of whom are virtually unstudied in their own right. Chapter 9 summarizes the findings and explores the poet’s mixed reception in later centuries. Ibn `Arabī emerges as a highly original poet whose work casts a fresh light on the period and on classical Arabic literature as a whole. Less

Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature

Jean Baumgarten

Jerold C. Frakes (ed.)

This book provides a survey of the broad and deep literary tradition in Yiddish. The book is a study of an entire culture via its literature, and thus it sees literature in a broad ... More

This book provides a survey of the broad and deep literary tradition in Yiddish. The book is a study of an entire culture via its literature, and thus it sees literature in a broad sense. It begins with four chapters addressing pertinent issues of the larger cultural context of the literature and moves on to a consideration of the primary genres in which the culture is expressed: epic, romance, prose narrative, drama, biblical translation and commentary, ethical and moral treatises, prayers, and the broad range of literature of daily use — medical, legal, and historical. Less

The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language

Janet Martin Soskice

This book considers four concepts in a Biblical context: fathers, sons, brothers, kings. It then asks the questions: Does the predominantly masculine symbolism of the Biblical writings ... More

This book considers four concepts in a Biblical context: fathers, sons, brothers, kings. It then asks the questions: Does the predominantly masculine symbolism of the Biblical writings exclude women or overlook the riches of their spiritual life? If Christ is ‘the second Adam’ and the one on whom all Christian life must be patterned, then what about Eve? This book opens up the Bible's imagery for sex, gender, and kinship and does so by discussing its place in the central teachings of Christian theology: the doctrine of God and spirituality, Imago Dei and anthropology, Creation, Christology and the Cross, the Trinity, and eschatology. Less

Making Nature Sacred: Literature, Religion, and the Environment in America from the Puritans to the Present

John Gatta

Since colonial times, the sense of encountering an unseen, transcendental Presence within the natural world has been a characteristic motif in American literature and culture. In this ... More

Since colonial times, the sense of encountering an unseen, transcendental Presence within the natural world has been a characteristic motif in American literature and culture. In this book, the author suggests that the religious import of environmental literature has yet to be fully recognized or understood. Whatever their theology, American writers have perennially construed the nonhuman world to be a source, in Rachel Carson’s words, of “something that takes us out of ourselves.” Reflecting recent practice of “ecocriticism,” Making Nature Sacred explores how the quest for natural revelation has been pursued through successive phases of American literary and intellectual history. And it shows how the imaginative challenge of “reading” landscapes has been influenced by biblical hermeneutics. Though focused on adaptations of Judeo-Christian tradition that view nature as religiously iconic, it also samples Native American, African American, and Buddhist forms of ecospirituality. It begins with Colonial New England writers such Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards, re-examines pivotal figures such as Henry Thoreau and John Muir, and takes account of writings by Mary Austin, Rachel Carson, and many others along the way. The book concludes with an assessment of the “spiritual renaissance” underway in current environmental writing. Such writing is represented by prose writers such as Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, John Cheever, Marilynne Robinson, Peter Matthiessen, and Barry Lopez; and by noteworthy poets including Patiann Rogers, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, and Denise Levertov. American writers testify overall that our ecological predicament must be understood not merely as a technical challenge, but as a genuine crisis of spirit and imagination. Less

The Metaphysics of Dante's Comedy

Christian Moevs

Dante's metaphysics — his understanding of reality — is very different from our own. To present Dante's ideas about the cosmos, or God, or salvation, or history, or poetry within the ... More

Dante's metaphysics — his understanding of reality — is very different from our own. To present Dante's ideas about the cosmos, or God, or salvation, or history, or poetry within the context of post-Enlightenment presuppositions, as is usually done, is thus to capture only imperfectly the essence of those ideas. This book argues that the recovery of Dante's metaphysics is essential if we are to resolve what has been called “the central problem in the interpretation of the Comedy. ”That problem is what to make of the Comedy's claim to the “status of revelation, vision, or experiential record — as something more than imaginative literature.” This book offers a sustained treatment of the metaphysical picture that grounds and motivates the Comedy, and of the relation between those metaphysics and Dante's poetics. The book carries this out through an examination of three notoriously complex cantos of the Paradiso, read against the background of the Neoplatonic and Aristotelian tradition from which they arise. Less