By close readings of poems and by theoretical analysis involving theology, philosophy and literary criticism, this collection of essays explores poetry's contribution to the expression of theological wonder, which can occur both in ordinary life and in the natural world, or can arise in the context of explicitly supernatural mystical experience.

This collection of essays explores poetry's contribution to the expression of theological wonder, which can occur both in ordinary life and in the natural world or can arise in the context of explicitly supernatural mystical experience. Poets have a special role in capturing religious awe in ways beyond the power of discursive language. Some essays in this book approach the subject on a theoretical level, working with theology, philosophy and literary criticism. Others provide close readings of poems in which the engagement with a variously understood idea or experience of wonder is prominent, from the English-language tradition and outside it. Poets from culturally and historically different backgrounds are thus drawn together through the focus on the meaning of wonder.

Autorentext

Martin Potter specialises in aesthetics and the writings of Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, and David Jones. He is also a poet. Mägorzata Grzegorzewska is a specialist in Renaissance literature and drama and in connections between literature, philosophy and theology. Jean Ward s research interests are literary translation and religious poetry, including Eliot, R.S. Thomas, and Elizabeth Jennings.

Klappentext

This collection of essays explores poetry s contribution to the expression of theological wonder, which can occur both in ordinary life and in the natural world or can arise in the context of explicitly supernatural mystical experience. Poets have a special role in capturing religious awe in ways beyond the power of discursive language. Some essays in this book approach the subject on a theoretical level, working with theology, philosophy and literary criticism. Others provide close readings of poems in which the engagement with a variously understood idea or experience of wonder is prominent, from the English-language tradition and outside it. Poets from culturally and historically different backgrounds are thus drawn together through the focus on the meaning of wonder.

Inhalt

Aporias of Wonder - Wonder and Desire in Theology and Literature - Mystery, Wonder, Imagination - Wondering/Wandering - Epistemologies of Wonder - Agnosticism - Epiphanies in the Ordinary - "Saddened Wonder" - Shock and Awe - Self and World - Wonderment and the Commonplace - The Burning Bush - Poetic Magnificats