Infinity, faith and time : Christian humanism and Renaissance literature / John Spencer Hill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hill, John Spencer, 1943-

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion. Series two.

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion. Series two

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European literature--Renaissance, 1450-1600--History and criticism.

European literature.

Humanism in literature.

Infinite in literature.

Time in literature.

Physical Description:

xiv, 200 p. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

The Expanding Universe

Fides Quærens Intellectum

The Aristotelian Cosmos

Nicholas of Cusa and the New Astronomy

Rational Spirituality and Empirical Rationalism

Chorismos and Methexis: Pascal, Traherne, Milton

Time

Chronos and Kairos

Inner Time: Augustine and Bergson

Time, Literature, and Literary Criticism

Time in Shakespeare

Heilsgeschischte: Typology and the Helix of History

Notes Toward a Protestant Poetic

Translations from Pascal’s Pensées

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85471-2

9786612854712

0-7735-6681-3

OCLC:

929121093