Donne’s God (Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)

His contemporaries recognised John Donne (1572-1631) as a completely new kind of poet. He was, wrote one enthusiast, ‘Copernicus in Poetrie’. But in the winter of 1614-15 Donne abandoned part-time versification for full-time priestly ministry, quickly becoming one of the most popular preachers of his time. While his verse has never been short of modern admirers, his sermons have recently begun to receive their full share of serious attention. Yet there exists almost no theologically-informed criticism to assist readers with navigating, let alone appreciating, the intricacies of Donne’s religious thinking. The need for such criticism is especially urgent since many readers approach his writing today with little previous knowledge of Christian doctrine or history. This book supplies that deficiency. Starting from the assumption that theology is inevitably the product of the human imagination, a perception that is traced back to major early Christian writers (and something that Donne implicitly acknowledged), it probes the complex amalgam that constituted his ever-shifting vision of the deity. It examines his theological choices and their impact on his preaching, analysing the latter with reference to its sometimes strained relationship with Christian orthodoxy and the implications of this for any attempt to determine how far Donne may legitimately be viewed as a mouthpiece for the Jacobean and Caroline Church of England. The book argues that the unconventionality that characterises his verse is also on display in his sermons. As a result it presents Donne as a far more creative and risk-taking religious thinker than has previously been recognised, especially by those determined to see him as a paragon of conventional Christian orthodoxy. $c --From publisher's description MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Abbreviations 10 Preface and Acknowledgements 14 Introduction 18 1 Donne’s Religion 27 Theology’s Limitations 27 Believing Aright 31 The Household of the Faithful 36 Unaligned But Not Detached 42 The Preacher’s Calling 52 2 Divine Triplicity 66 Rehabilitating the Centre 66 Taking Hold of God 69 Written Evidence 73 Defining Doctrines 79 Strict Silence 81 3 Blurred Boundaries 89 Persons Divine and Human 89 Councils Divine and Human 96 The Trinitarian Human 100 A Profusion of Trinities 106 4 God as Father 114 First Person Narrative 114 Defining Relationships 120 Double Paternity 124 5 God as Son 134 Double Sonship 134 Theory and Practice 143 Power and Prerogative 152 6 God as Spirit 165 Missing Person 165 More Hawk Than Dove? 170 Trinitarian Coda: Down Close and Personal 179 7 The God of God 185 Promise and Performance 185 Heaven’s Open Door 191 Human Freedom and Divine Action 197 Donne’s God 204 Bibliography 214 Index 224