The Romantic Reformation: Religious Politics in English Literature, 1789-1824Cambridge University Press, 2004 M07 29 - 308 pages This is the first book to examine the literature of the Romantic period as a conscious attempt to effect the religious transformation of society. Robert Ryan argues that the political quarrel that preoccupied England during the Romantic period was in large part an argument about the religious character of the nation, and that the Romantics became active and conspicuous participants in this public debate. Where critics have traditionally viewed the Romantics as creative metaphysicians articulating private visions of a transcendent order in detachment from actual social conflict, Ryan shows instead that their religious prescriptions were formulated in response to specific historical and social circumstances. This book shows how the careers of Blake, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, and the Shelleys are radically reconfigured when viewed in the context of the period's passionate debate on religion, politics and society. |
Contents
Introduction page I | 13 |
Blakes orthodoxy | 43 |
Natures priest | 80 |
The ironies of belief | 119 |
The politics of Greek religion | 152 |
The Christian monster | 179 |
The unknown God | 193 |
Romantic reformation | 224 |
| 270 | |
| 289 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ancient Anglican articulated atheism belief Bishop Blake's Britain British Byron Cain Cain's called century character Christianity Clarendon Press Coleridge conception conflict contemporary Creator critics cultural deism Dissenters divine doctrine E. P. Thompson Ecclesiastical English Essay eternal Evangelical Excursion expressed Frankenstein Godwin Greek Harold Bloom Harvard University Press Heaven Hellas human ideology imagination inspired intellectual irony Jerome McGann Jerusalem Jesus Christ John Keats Keats's kind Letters liberal literary London Lord Luvah M. H. Abrams mankind Mary Shelley metaphysical Milton mind Monster moral myth mythology national religion natural religion orthodoxy Oxford Paradise Lost Percy Bysshe Shelley philosophical poem poet poet's poetic political Prelude prophet Prose Protestant radical readers religious reform repudiation revival Revolution rhetoric Richard Carlile Romantic Poetry Romanticism seems sense Shelley's skepticism society Solitary spirit suggests tendency theological thou thought tion tradition truth Urizen vision William Blake word Wordsworth worship writings wrote York