Infinity, Faith, and Time: Christian Humanism and Renaissance LiteratureMcGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1997 M11 26 - 216 pages In Part 1 Hill examines the effect of the idea of spatial infinity on seventeenth-century literature, arguing that the metaphysical cosmology of Nicholas of Cusa provided Renaissance writers, such as Pascal, Traherne, and Milton, with a way to construe the vastness of space as the symbol of human spiritual potential. Focusing on time in Part 2, Hill reveals that, faced with the inexorability of time, Christian humanists turned to St Augustine to develop a philosophy that interpreted temporal passage as the necessary condition of experience without making it the essence or ultimate measure of human purpose. Hill's analysis centres on Shakespeare, whose experiments with the shapes of time comprise a gallery of heuristic time-centred fictions that attempt to explain the consequences of human existence in time. Infinity, Faith, and Time reveals that the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period during which individuals were able, with more success than in later times, to make room for new ideas without rejecting old beliefs. |
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Page xiii
... plays as diverse as Troilus and Cressida , Macbeth , and The Winter's Tale comprise a gallery of heuristic time- centred fictions that seek to understand , in a very Augustinian way , the possibilities and consequences of human ...
... plays as diverse as Troilus and Cressida , Macbeth , and The Winter's Tale comprise a gallery of heuristic time- centred fictions that seek to understand , in a very Augustinian way , the possibilities and consequences of human ...
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Contents
1 | |
TIME | 67 |
Notes Toward a Protestant Poetic | 137 |
Translations from Pascals Pensées | 154 |
Notes | 157 |
Bibliography | 185 |
Index | 195 |
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Infinity, Faith, and Time: Christian Humanism and Renaissance Literature John Spencer Hill No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Anglican argues Aristotelian Aristotle astronomy Augustine Augustine's Augustinian believe Bergson centre century Christ Christian Clement Clement of Alexandria conception consciousness cosmology cosmos creation Creator Cusa¹ Cusanus Cusanus's death distentio animi divine doctrine duration earth élan vital eschatology eternity existence expectatio experience finite future Gnostic God's grace Greek hand hath heaven Holy human humanist idea imagination infinite intuition kairos knowledge living Macbeth man's metaphysical methexis Milton mind modern motion mystery nature Nicholas of Cusa Paradise Lost paradox Pascal past Pensées philosophy physical plays Plotinus poem present prevenient grace providential Puritan reality religion Renaissance literature revealed salvation secular sense Shakespeare sola fide sonnet soul space spatial infinity sphere Stromateis symbol teleology temporal tempus thee theme theology things thir thou thought tion tradition Traherne transcendent Troilus and Cressida truth understanding unfolding universe vision Winter's Tale words καὶ