An extended reflection upon the relationship between religion and literature.
Tag Archives: Paradise Lost
Literature’s Unique Spiritual Insights
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Collar", "Egrets", "Flower", Brothers Karamazov, Flannery O'Connor, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Herbert, Good Man Is Hard to Find, John Milton, King Lear, literature and religion, Mary Oliver, Religion, William Shakespeare Comments closed
With the Second Coming, Peaceful Animals
Spiritual Sunday Today’s gorgeous Old Testament reading (Isaiah 11:1-10), which captures the spirit of messianic hope, has images that Milton uses in Paradise Lost. While Isaiah is envisioning the coming of the Messiah, however, Milton is looking back to the world before the fall. It can be again in the future asit once was in […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged C. S. Lewis, Isaiah, John Milton, Magician's Nephew, world peace Comments closed
Teach Beowulf to Combat Violence
To teach students how to understand and respond to violence, Beowulf is a go-to work.
Which Literary Conman Is Trump?
To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beggar's Opera, Confidence Man, conmen, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn, John Gay, John Milton, Mark Twain, Othello, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Trump’s Satanic Plans for July 4
Wednesday As Donald Trump will be doing his best tomorrow to transform our nation’s celebration of its founding ideas into a celebration of himself, I turn to another figure who is just as narcissistic. I’ve written in the past how both Satan and Trump are driven above all by spite. Today I focus on how […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, John Milton, July 4 celebration, pageantry Comments closed
We Have Here the Stuff of Paradise
Spiritual Sunday Spring has broken all over southern Tennessee, giving me the occasion to run Edwin Markham’s wonderful “Earth Is Enough.” His view, I believe, is similar to what Jesus meant by heaven on earth. We are to find heaven in ourselves and heaven in our surroundings, not wait until we die. To focus overmuch […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Earth Is Enough", Book of Common Prayer, Edwin Markham, John Milton, Nature Comments closed
In Praise of Literary Biography
I share a discussion I had with John Stubbs, author of riveting biographies on Swift, Donne, and the cavalier poets.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged John Milton, John Stubbs, Jonathan Swift, literary biography, Modest Proposal Comments closed
Read to Resist: An Introduction
Thursday I share today the introduction to my upcoming book, which is still in draft form and whose title I keep changing. Latest title: Read to Resist: Classic Lit Provides Tools for Battling Trump and Trumpism. I’m still not entirely satisfied with that and so will keep tinkering. In any event, here’s my first attempt […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Beowulf, Donald Trump, Dunciad, Go Set a Watchman, H. G. Wells, Harper Lee, Invisible Man, John Milton, Leo Tolstoy, Othello, To Kill a Mockingbird, Trump resistance, War and Peace, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Imagining Little Ocean’s Future
Looking for the literary significance of my latest grandchild, I turn to Walcott, Whitman, Masefield, Coleridge, and Byron. What emerges is a mystical seeker.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", "Sea Fever", "Tales of the Islands", baby names, Derek Walcott, J. D. Salinger, John Masefield, John Milton, Laurence Sterne, Lord Byron, Lucille Clifton, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, To Esme with Love and Squalor, Tristram Shandy, Walt Whitman, William Blake Comments closed
