The Poets' Jesus Representations at the End of a Millennium [Hardcover]

Poets have always been the medium through which a culture talks of, and to, its gods. Now, in this learned but lively commentary, Peggy Rosenthal shows us the astonishing range of poetic encounters with Jesus. With a special emphasis on twentieth-century poetry, Rosenthal draws from an unprecedented range of world poetry--from Africa, the Arab world, and the Far East to Latin America and the West--to give readers an understanding of how different times and different cultures have affected the way poets refigure Jesus and of how poets' fascination with the man from Nazareth transcends all barriers. She also demonstrates that, despite the twentieth century's self-definition as a secular and post-Christian epoch, it has produced poetry about Jesus of truly surprising quality and variety. Impeccably researched and extremely accessible,The Poets Jesuswill strongly appeal to scholars of poetry and religion as well as for all general readers of poetry.

1. Jesus as Christ and More: The First Eighteen Centuries
2. Jesus as Romantic Hero
3. Sliding into Modernism: Jesus Pale and Shrunken
4. Crisis of the Secularized West: Postmodernism's Jesus as Anti-Hero
5. Crucified Africa: The Politicized Jesus of Africa and Beyond
6. Archetypal Christ: Arabic Poetry and other Wastelands
7. Jesus Absent
8. Between Absence and Presence: Playing Around with Jesus
9. Jesus Present

[The Poets' Jesus] is a short, reader-friendly account of how poets have rendered Jesus, primarily from the 19th century to the present. This book is also, in passing, a swift overview of the last two centuries of Christian theology and Western culture. --Peter Steinfels,The New York Times

Rosenthal's range is ambitious.... [Her] arguments are convincing, her examples compelling and her knowledge of contemporary poets impressive. Her clear prose style and her avoidance of the distancing parlance of current literary theory make this a valulþ