John Donne and the Protestant Reformation: New Perspectives

Couverture
Mary Arshagouni Papazian
Wayne State University Press, 2003 - 385 pages

This collection of thirteen essays by an international group of scholars focuses on the impact of the Protestant Reformation on Donne's life, theology, poetry, and prose.

The early transition from Catholicism to Protestantism was a complicated journey for England, as individuals sorted out their spiritual beliefs, chose their political allegiances, and confronted an array of religious differences that had sprung forth in their society since the reign of Henry VIII. Inner anxieties often translated into outward violence. Amidst this turmoil the poet and Protestant preacher John Donne (1572-1631) emerged as a central figure, one who encouraged peace among Christians. Raised a Catholic but ordained in 1615 as an Anglican clergyman, Donne publicly identified himself with Protestantism, and yet scholars have long questioned his theological orientation. Drawing upon recent scholarship in church history, the authors of this collection reconsider Donne's relationship to Protestantism and clearly demonstrate the political and theological impact of the Reformation on his life and writings.

The collection includes thirteen essays that together place Donne broadly in the context of English and European traditions and explore his divine poetry, his prose work, the Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and his sermons. It becomes clear that in adopting the values of the Reformation, Donne does not completely reject everything from his Catholic background. Rather, the clash of religion erupts in his work in both moving and disconcerting ways. This collection offers a fresh understanding of Donne's hard-won irenicism, which he achieved at great personal and professional risk.

 

Pages sélectionnées

Table des matières

Polemist or Pastor? Donne and Moderate Calvinist Conformity
12
Speaking Openly and Speaking First John Donne the Synod of Dort and the Early Stuart Church
35
The Augustinian Donne How a Second S Augustine?
66
John Donne and Paolo Sarpi Rendering the Council of Trent
90
Donnes Protestant Paradiso The Johannine Vision of the Second Anniversary
113
Souldiers of one Army John Donne and the Army of the States General as an International Protestant Crossroads 15951625
143
Unmeete Contraryes The Reformed Subject and the Triangulation of Religious Desire in Donnes Anniversaries and Holy Sonnets
193
From Tav to the Cross John Donnes Protestant Exegesis and Polemics
221
Pathopoeia and the Protestant Form of Donnes Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
247
Breaking Down the Walls That Divide AntiPolemicism in the Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
273
Reforming Baptism John Donne and Continental Irenicism
293
True Purification Donnes Art of Rhetoric in Two Candlemas Sermons
314
Not upon a Lecture but upon a Sermon Devotional Dynamics of the Donnean Fisher of Men
335
Contributors
361
Index
365
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À propos de l'auteur (2003)

Mary Arshagouni Papazian is an Associate Professor of English and Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Oakland University.

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