Modernism and Theology: Rainer Maria Rilke, T. S. Eliot, Czesław Miłosz (Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature)

'Joanna Rzepa's Modernism and Theology forcefully upends the provincial secularization thesis of Anglo-American literary modernism by placing it in the larger international and historical context of theological modernism, showing how major writers from different cultures and languages have explored and asserted the primacy of spiritual and mystical elements of literature over secularism and materialism. This revolutionary study will have a lasting impact on future studies of literary modernism and generate expansive scholarship and revaluation in the field.' --Ronald Schuchard, General Editor, The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot This is the first book-length study to examine the interface between literary and theological modernisms. It provides a comprehensive account of literary responses to the modernist crisis in Christian theology from a transnational and interdenominational perspective. It offers a cultural history of the period, considering a wide range of literary and historical sources, including novels, drama, poetry, literary criticism, encyclicals, theological and philosophical treatises, periodical publications, and wartime propaganda. By contextualising literary modernism within the cultural, religious, and political landscape, the book reveals fundamental yet largely forgotten connections between literary and theological modernisms. It shows that early-twentieth-century authors, poets, and critics, including Rainer Maria Rilke, T. S. Eliot, and Czesław Miłosz, actively engaged with the debates between modernist and neo-scholastic theologians raging across Europe. These debates contributed to developing new ways of thinking about the relationship between religion and literature, and informed contemporary critical writings on aesthetics and poetics Series Editors’ Preface Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction The Religious Roots of Modernism Theology in a State of Crisis: Critical, Literary, and Poetic Responses Rethinking Modernism(s) and Religion Bibliography Part I: Reconciling Christianity and Modernity in the Early Twentieth Century Chapter 2: A Theological History of Modernism The ‘New Wine’ of Modernism and the ‘Old Scholastic Bottles’ William James, Henri Bergson, and the Twentieth-Century Mystical Revival Transnational Modernism and Global Ecumenism ‘To be a heretic to-day is almost a human obligation’ Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 3: Spiritualising the War: Religion, Conflict, and Politics World War 1 and Religion: Reimagining the Real Fighting for Christianity: Religion, Politics, and Propaganda in the 1910s–1940s ‘A Christian Looks at the Jewish Question’ Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 4: Spaces of Encounter: Theological Modernism and Neo-scholasticism in Literature and Literary Criticism ‘A cause which finds living expression in a great novel [...] cannot fail’ Orthodoxy and Heresy in Literary Criticism ‘Rancid’ Theology and ‘Pure Poetry’ Conclusion Bibliography Part II: Poetry, Aesthetics, and Theology (c. 1900–1950) Chapter 5: The Ripening Dark God of Modernity: Religion and Creativity in Rainer Maria Rilke’s and Lou Andreas-Salomé’s Writings The Misrepresented God of Dogmatic Christianity Russia and Its Vocation: From the Third Rome to the Universal Church The Orthodox Icon and the Creative Act Divinity and Gender: Mary, Sophia, and Androgyne Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 6: A ‘Raid on the Absolute’: Dogmatic Tradition and Mystical Experience in T. S. Eliot’s Poetry and Criticism The Varieties of Mysticism: Interpreting Religious Experience Eliot’s Early Encounters with Neo-scholasticism and Theological Modernism Dogma in the Modern World: Rewriting the Incarnation The Inner Voice and Tradition: The Eliot–Murry Debate Between Religious and Aesthetic Experience: Neo-Thomist Aesthetics and the ‘Pure Poetry’ Debate Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 7: ‘A Passionate Pursuit of the Real’: Theology and Poetics in Czesław Miłosz’s Writings Apocalyptic Visions and the Question of Evil: Marian Zdziechowski’s Christian Pessimism Society, Language, and Creativity: Stanisław Brzozowski’s Philosophy of Labour ‘[D]efence against irrationalism’: Wartime Reckoning with Theological Modernism and Neo-Thomism ‘I criticise Pure Form out of love’: Miłosz Reads Henri Bremond and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 8: Epilogue Russia, America, and the End of Europe Reading the Signs of the Times: Religion and Modernity in the 1950s–1960s Bibliography Index