The priest and religious poet George Herbert (1593-1633) has been largely regarded as a representative of via media Anglicanism, an Anglo-Catholic, Puritan and sectarian. With reference to the collection of poems published in 1633 under the title -The Temple-, the study shows that Herbert systematically exploited the tensions existing between the rival philosophical and theological/ecclesiological currents of his day to criticize the imminent schism threatening to split the Church of England under the Stuart kings. Accordingly, he sees his Temple as an ideal and individual church based on...

With reference to selected English novels this book undertakes a detailed examination of the image of the artist prevalent in contemporary novels and the extent to which this image differs from those of earlier epochs. Of major significance in this connection are the radical transformation in notions about what constitutes art and the disavowal of the concept of the creative subject in post-structuralism. These two aspects also characterize the contemporary artist's effort to come to terms with the artistic legacy of the past. Affirmation of tradition and respect for the creative powers of...

The study begins by situating the moment in the context of the history of ideas, then takes a cultural history approach drawing upon selected examples to point up crucial stages in the history of the moment at which its ongoing secularization becomes particularly apparent: Christian Middle Ages, Romanticism, Aestheticism, Modernism. In its given context, however, the moment also stands as an instance of metaphysical or quasi-metaphysical experience of the world militating against the progressive loss of transcendence. Against this background various aspects of the experience of the moment in...