Christian Criticism: A Study of Literary God-talk

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Rodopi, 1976 - Literary Criticism - 201 pages

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Contents

Preface
5
Devotion and The Flower
21
Expressing the Inexpressible
41
Herberts Poetic Godtalk
55
The Sacrifice
73
Miltons God
87
The Satanic Parable
109
The Hazards of Semantic Idolatry
135
The Sermon as Sacrament
159
Performative Preaching
179
Index
197
Copyright

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Page 39 - For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
Page 37 - Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.
Page 119 - Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise With blackest insurrection, to confound Heaven's purest light, yet our great enemy All incorruptible would on his throne Sit unpolluted...
Page 63 - All wasted? Not so, my heart; but there is fruit, And thou hast hands.
Page 55 - Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age, Gods breath in man returning to his birth, The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage, The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth; Engine against th...
Page 28 - Who would have thought my shrivelled heart Could have recovered greenness? It was gone Quite under ground; as flowers depart To see their mother-root, when they have blown; Where they together All the hard weather, Dead to the world, keep house unknown. These are thy wonders, Lord of power, Killing and quick'ning, bringing down to hell And up to heaven in an hour; Making a chiming of a passing-bell. We say amiss, This or that is: Thy word is all, if we could spell.
Page 125 - What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome?
Page 22 - The essence of poetry is invention ; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights. The topics of devotion are few, and being few are universally known ; but, few as they are, they can be made no more ; they can receive no grace from novelty of sentiment, and very little from novelty of expression.
Page 27 - The Flower How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean Are thy returns! ev'n as the flowers in spring; To which, besides their own demean, The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
Page 28 - And now in age I bud again, After so many deaths I live and write; I once more smell the dew and rain, And relish versing: O my only light, It cannot be That I am he, On whom thy tempests fell all night.

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