Picturing Religious Experience

George Herbert, Calvin, and the Scriptures

Daniel Doerksen

• Publisher: University of Delaware Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781644531129
  9781644531112
• eBook ISBN:
  9781644531136
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Little has been said about the relationship of Herbert's writings to those of John Calvin, yet the latter were abundant and influential in Herbert's Church of England. Accordingly Picturing Religious Experience studies Herbert's poetry in relation to those writings, particularly regarding "spiritual conflicts," which the poet himself said would be found depicted in his book of poems. Much more than is generally realized, Calvin wrote about the experience of living the Christian life—which is also Herbert's subject in many of his poems. Altogether, this study maintains that Herbert owes to his religious orientation not just themes or details, but an impulse to observe and depict the inner life, and scriptural patterns which significantly contribute to the substance and literary excellence of The Temple.

Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
 

Table of contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1 Herbert and Calvin
• Chapter 2 Interpreting Herbert’s “Spiritual Conflicts”
• Chapter 3 The Temple and a Biblical Schema for the Literary Depiction of Experience
• Chapter 4 The “Descent Into Self” and Its Goal “The Knowledge Of God And Of Ourselves”
• Chapter 5 “Spiritual Conflicts” in The Temple
• Chapter 6 Conflict Resolution and “Temper” in The Temple
• Bibliography
• About the Author