Coleridge as Poet and Religious ThinkerIn the nineteenth century there was a definite divide between those who read Coleridge as a religious thinker and those who read him as a poet. Even now, readers and critics find it hard not to consider one aspect of his work to the exclusion of the other. Here David Jasper considers Coleridge as a poet, literary critic, theologian and philosopher, seeing him as occupying a representative place in European and English Romantic thought on poetry, religion and the role of the artist. His earliest writings are closely linked to his mature religious and critical thought, and his greatest poems, 'Kubla Khan', 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and the 'Dejection' Ode, are a necessary prelude to the prose writings of the middle period of Coleridge's life. Self-reflection upon the processes of creating poetry and art, particularly in the Biographia Literaria, is an important development in Coleridge's sense of the relation of the finite to the infinite through the inspiration of the poet. Attention to the nature of inspiration, imagination and irony in creative writing leads directly to his later discussions of man's need of a divine redeemer and the nature of divine revelation. In the later poetry, attention is given to the theme of self-reflection in which spiritual growth is part and parcel of poetic development, each balancing the other. The final part of the book considers Coleridge's later prose, linking his reflections upon poetry with an epistemology, which he learnt principally from Kant and Fichtee in a discussion of revelation and radical evil. In conclusion, Coleridge's religious position is summed up through the late, and still unpublished notebooks, and the fragmentary remains of the long-projected Opus Maximum. The last chapter links Coleridge with a more recent debate on the nature of inspiration, poetic and divine, which arises out of Austin Farrer's Bampton Lectures The Glass of Vision. |
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Page 21
... reflection and self- reflection whereby he learnt that ' in the component faculties of the human mind itself " is the key to truth about man , the world and God . Such self - reflection is a necessary prelude to theology . It is closely ...
... reflection and self- reflection whereby he learnt that ' in the component faculties of the human mind itself " is the key to truth about man , the world and God . Such self - reflection is a necessary prelude to theology . It is closely ...
Page 96
... reflection upon the reflected image of God in man as an ' inward experience ' , to be perceived and shaped by the creative imagination . Because of the divine qualities of infinity and eternity , such reflection will expect an endless ...
... reflection upon the reflected image of God in man as an ' inward experience ' , to be perceived and shaped by the creative imagination . Because of the divine qualities of infinity and eternity , such reflection will expect an endless ...
Page 98
... reflection , representing ' the concentration of All in Each a Power that acts by a contraction of universal truths into individual duties ' ( Appendix C , p . 64 ) . Religion is drawn towards Coleridge's theory of the imagination for ...
... reflection , representing ' the concentration of All in Each a Power that acts by a contraction of universal truths into individual duties ' ( Appendix C , p . 64 ) . Religion is drawn towards Coleridge's theory of the imagination for ...
Contents
THE ROMANTIC CONTEXT | 8 |
Symbol and Organic Form | 16 |
KUBLA KHAN THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT | 43 |
Copyright | |
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Coleridge as Poet and Religious Thinker: Inspiration and Revelation David Jasper Limited preview - 1985 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Aids to Reflection Ancient Mariner artist Austin Farrer biblical Biographia Literaria Boehme Cambridge Christ Christian Coleridge London Coleridge's Coleridge's later Confessio Fidei Confessions creative described divine doctrine English Essays eternal experience F. J. A. Hort faith Farrer finite fragment Friend(CC Glass of Vision Gospel Harmondsworth Hartley Helen Gardner human Ibid Idea individual infinite inspiration intuition irony John Beer John Thelwall Kant Kant's Kermode Kubla Khan language Lay Sermons CC Lectures letter literary criticism Literature Logos M. H. Abrams Marginalia Mary Midgley metaphysical mind moral mystery narrative nature Notebook object Opus Maximum Owen Barfield Oxford perceived philosophical poem poet poetic poetry Polar Logic principle quoted reason religion religious revelation Romantic Romanticism S. T. Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge Schelling Scripture sense Spirit Studies symbol tetractys theology Theory Thomas McFarland thought Tradition trans truth unity universal Wordsworth