Boundless Innocence in Thomas Traherne's Poetic Theology

Boundless Innocence in Thomas Traherne's Poetic Theology
Author: Elizabeth S. Dodd
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2016-03-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317172930

The seventeenth-century poet and divine Thomas Traherne finds innocence in every stage of existence. He finds it in the chaos at the origins of creation as well as in the blessed order of Eden. He finds it in the activities of grace and the hope of glory, but also in the trials of misery and even in the abyss of the Fall. Boundless Innocence in Thomas Traherne’s Poetic Theology traces innocence through Traherne’s works as it transgresses the boundaries of the estates of the soul. Using grammatical and literary categories it explores various aspects of his poetic theology of innocence, uncovering the boundless desire which is embodied in the yearning cry: ’Were all Men Wise and Innocent...’ Recovering and reinterpreting a key but increasingly neglected theme in Traherne’s poetic theology, this book addresses fundamental misconceptions of the meaning of innocence in his work. Through a contextual and theological approach, it indicates the unexplored richness, complexity and diversity of this theme in the history of literature and theology.

Re-reading Thomas Traherne

Re-reading Thomas Traherne
Author: Jacob Blevins
Publisher: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS)
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Happiness and Holiness

Happiness and Holiness
Author: Denise Inge
Publisher: Canterbury Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2008-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1853117897

The 17th century writer Thomas Traherne is increasingly being recognised and studied as a theologian as well as a poet. The discovery, in 1997, announced by the author of this volume, of five new prose works and a poetic work has given huge impetus to the study of Traherne in literature and theology. This affordable, concise introduction to Traherne's life and work concerns Traherne primarily as a theologian and places him in an historical and intellectual context he has thus far lacked. It demonstrates his distinctive contribution to Anglican theology. Consisting of a 10,000 word introductory essay and biography it is followed by extracts from Traherne's work under the following headings: Creatures and Powers, Holiness and Happiness, Sin and Salvation, Christian Liberty, Advice on Ministry, and Prayers.

John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets

John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets
Author: Harold Bloom
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2010
Genre: Criticism
ISBN: 143813438X

Presents a collection of critical essays about the works of John Donne and other metaphysical poets.

Centuries’ Ends, Narrative Means

Centuries’ Ends, Narrative Means
Author: Interdisciplinary Group for Historical Literary Study
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 1996
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780804726498

This pathbreaking work uses the approaching conclusion of the second millennium as a context for discussing questions concerning temporal division and narrative continuity. It investigates assumptions about teleology and eschatology while exploring the ways in which temporal division affects the creation and production of cultural texts and, reciprocally, the ways in which narrative techniques, forms, and conventions shape, explain, and justify history. Through this exploration, the volume examines how temporal thresholds tend simultaneously to reinforce and to disrupt conceptual boundaries. The sixteen essays use the significance typically invested in historical junctures marked by a centenary advance to investigate perceived paradigm shifts and the consequent reactions to these implicit and explicit transitions. By doing so, they also seek to illuminate the relations between narrative and history, and to enhance understanding of our present historical moment.

Children of God

Children of God
Author: Edmund Newey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2016-05-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317167805

Children of God uncovers the significant, but largely unnoticed, place of the child as a prototype of human flourishing in the work of four authors spanning the modern period. Shedding new light on the role of the child figure in modernity, and in theological responses to it, the book makes an important contribution to the disciplines of historical theology, theology and literature and ecumenical theology. Through a careful exploration of the continuities and differences in the work of Thomas Traherne, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Charles Péguy, it traces the ways in which their distinctive responses to human childhood structured the broader pattern of their theology, showing how they reached beyond the confines of academic theology and exercised a lasting influence on their literary and cultural context.

Clairvoyant Wordsworth

Clairvoyant Wordsworth
Author: Robert B. Zimmer
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2002-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 059522444X

It is almost universally accepted that William Wordsworth never took seriously the idea of pre-existence, or life before birth. In this study, Robert Zimmer shows that this is an unjustifiable presumption. Evidence from Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood," from The Prelude, and from the "Essay Upon Epitaphs" shows that Wordsworth firmly believed in pre-existence. Nor was this an idea he adopted out of curiosity or for its poetic utility. Wordsworth, like Henry Vaughan and Thomas Traherne, remembered life before birth, and retained a kind of clairvoyance in his infancy. As Zimmer shows, it is only because of the religious and philosophical prejudices of critics since Coleridge that Wordsworth's recollections have seldom been properly recognized for what they are.

Understanding Children's Spirituality

Understanding Children's Spirituality
Author: Kevin E. Lawson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2012-03-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621893685

How important is childhood in the spiritual formation of a person? How do children experience God in the context of their lives as they grow? What does God do in the lives of children to draw them to himself and help them grow into a vital relationship with him? How can adults who care about children better support their spiritual growth and direct it toward relationship with God through Jesus Christ? These are critical questions that church leaders face as they consider how best to nurture the faith of the children God brings into our lives. In this book, over two dozen Christian scholars and ministry leaders explore important issues about the spiritual life of children and ways parents, church leaders, and others who care about children can promote their spiritual formation.