The Philosophical Mysticism of Gerard Manley Hopkins [Hardcover]

Through the lens of Hopkins's 'masterwork', The Philosophical Mysticism of Gerard Manley Hopkinsreaddresses Hopkins's frequently overlooked mysticism as an interior narrative within his corpus. Drawing on a range of religious, literary and visual traditions from Augustine's Confessionsto the seventeenth-century spiritual emblem, this book demonstrates the ways in which the Wreckdeliberately constructs and conceals a mystical and contemplative narrative. Typology and allegory are some of the important hermeneutic tools used in this re-reading of Hopkins, relating the poet to the discursive tradition surrounding the Old Testament Song of Songs, the philosophical theology of the Greek Fathers, and, perhaps most intriguingly, the meditative and visual tradition of the baroque heart-emblem. On the centenary of the publication of Hopkinss poems, this book places the writer firmly within a mystical tradition, necessitating a fundamental reconsideration of the legacy of this major Victorian poet.

Acknowledgments

1. Rare-Dear Gerard : Hopkins and the Early Fathers
2. Divine Labour: Contemplation, Energeia, Stress
3. Tractarian Mysticism and Indwelling Grace
4. Baptism and Ascent: Created Corruptible, Raised Incorruptible
5. Sacramental Typology and Second Nature
6. Origen and the Song of Songs
7. The Visible and Invisible in Augustines Confessions
8. Emblems of the Heart
9. Love, Spirit, Breath, Fire
10. The Paradise Within
11. Bibliography