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. |
From inside the book
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Page i
... tradition of Christian - Platonist rational spirituality derived from St Augustine and Nicholas of Cusa . John Spencer Hill argues that this tradition had a formative role in the thought of Renaissance writers by enabling them to ...
... tradition of Christian - Platonist rational spirituality derived from St Augustine and Nicholas of Cusa . John Spencer Hill argues that this tradition had a formative role in the thought of Renaissance writers by enabling them to ...
Page ii
... Tradition in Canada , 1839-1918 Marguerite Van Die 4 The Dévotes Women and Church in Seventeenth - Century France Elizabeth Rapley 5 The Evangelical Century College and Creed in English Canada from the Great Revival to the Great ...
... Tradition in Canada , 1839-1918 Marguerite Van Die 4 The Dévotes Women and Church in Seventeenth - Century France Elizabeth Rapley 5 The Evangelical Century College and Creed in English Canada from the Great Revival to the Great ...
Page xi
... tradition that ran back , through Augustine and Boethius , to roots in the Christian Pla- tonism of Clement of Alexandria . The influence of this tradition and its importance for Renaissance humanism have been overshadowed , on the one ...
... tradition that ran back , through Augustine and Boethius , to roots in the Christian Pla- tonism of Clement of Alexandria . The influence of this tradition and its importance for Renaissance humanism have been overshadowed , on the one ...
Page 5
... tradition , " the whole of which , like nuts , is not eatable " ( 1.1 ; ANF 2 : 300 ) . His admiration for Greek humanism was both profound and profoundly qualified : “ He loved Plato and Homer , but he did not read them on his knees ...
... tradition , " the whole of which , like nuts , is not eatable " ( 1.1 ; ANF 2 : 300 ) . His admiration for Greek humanism was both profound and profoundly qualified : “ He loved Plato and Homer , but he did not read them on his knees ...
Page 9
... tradition of rational spirituality was St Augustine . No one did more than he to establish the union of reason and faith and to reconcile Plato with Paul . Platonism , indeed , was instrumental in his own conversion to Christianity . It ...
... tradition of rational spirituality was St Augustine . No one did more than he to establish the union of reason and faith and to reconcile Plato with Paul . Platonism , indeed , was instrumental in his own conversion to Christianity . It ...
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