Biblical Tradition in Blake's Early Prophecies


Book Description

In a detailed examination of the ways in which Blake's use of biblical tradition gives form and meaning to his early prophetic books, Leslie Tannenbaum shows what Blake meant when he called the Bible the Great Code of Art." Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.




A Guide to the Cosmology of William Blake


Book Description

It is not surprising that visitors to Blake’s cosmology – the most elaborate in the history of British text and design – often demand a map in the form of a reference book. The entries in this volume benefit from the wide range of historical information made available in recent decades regarding the relationship between Blake’s text and design and his biographical, political, social, and religious contexts. Of particular importance, the entries take account of the re-interpretations of Blake with respect to race, gender, and empire in scholarship influenced by the groundbreaking theories that have arisen since the first half of the twentieth century. The intricate fluidity of Blake’s anti-Newtonian universe eludes the fixity of definitions and schema. Central to this guide to Blake's work and ideas is Kathryn S. Freeman's acknowledgment of the paradox of providing orientation in Blake’s universe without disrupting its inherent disorientation of the traditions whereby readers still come to it. In this innovative work, Freeman aligns herself with Blake’s demand that we play an active role in challenging our own readerly habits of passivity as we experience his created and corporeal worlds.




Blake and the Failure of Prophecy


Book Description

This monograph reorients discussion of Blake’s prophetic mode, revealing it to be not a system in any formal sense, but a dynamic, human response to an era of momentous historical change when the future Blake had foreseen and the reality he was faced with could not be reconciled. At every stage, Blake’s writing confronts the central problem of all politically minded literature: how texts can become action. Yet he presents us with no single or, indeed, conclusive answer to this question and in this sense it can be said that he fails. Blake, however, never stopped searching for a way that prophecy might be made to live up to its promise in the present. The twentieth-century hermeneuticist Paul Ricoeur shared with Blake a preoccupation with the relationship between time, text and action. Ricoeur’s hermeneutics thus provide a fresh theoretical framework through which to analyse Blake’s attempts to fulfil his prophetic purpose.







Blake and the Methodists


Book Description

Exploring the work of William Blake within the context of Methodism – the largest 'dissenting' religious group during his lifetime – this book contributes to ongoing critical debates surrounding Blake's religious affinities by suggesting that, contrary to previous thinking, Blake held sympathies with certain aspects of Methodism.




The Poetics of Prophecy


Book Description

Yosefa Raz reveals surprising entanglements between scholarly and poetic traditions in the project of reinventing prophecy. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.




Blake, Nation and Empire


Book Description

This book examines Blake's work in the context of discourses of nation and empire, of the construction of a public sphere, and restores the longevity to his artistic career by placing emphasis on his work in the 1820s. Relevant contexts include technology, sentimentalism, Ireland and Catholic Emancipation, missionary prospectuses and body politics.




Infernal Poetics


Book Description

This critical examination demonstrates how William Blake's techniques of symbolic juxtaposition work in both language and illustration of convey his poetic meaning. Tracing the development of the poet's technique from the earlier to the later works, the author places the often obscure Lambeth Prophecies in their stylistic context and renders them highly accessible.




"Strange Prophecies Anew"


Book Description

This book revives questions of religious and political authority in poetic prophecy. It argues that modern prophecy operates within a dynamic of continuity and estrangement that combines immanent and transcendent modes of representation, creating a poetry that revises the very tradition that authorizes it.




The Greatness of God


Book Description

With each passing day, our world seems to drift further and further away from the God of the Bible, divine creation, and Christian belief. This societal shift toward postmodernism and secularism is not a new development, however; the expanding and intensifying revolt against the biblical God and Christianity traces its roots back to the modern philosophies of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, which have given rise to many divergent views during the past three centuries, and become even more extreme in recent postmodernism. The Greatness of God: How God Is the Foundation of All Reality, Truth, Love, Goodness, Beauty, and Purpose stands as an intellectual counterweight to the prevailing winds of a secular postmodern world. Author Charles Frank Thompson argues that the consequences of this rejection of God and divine creation have not been benign. He traces the modern revolution in detail and describes its deleterious consequences, including the loss of the ultimate basis for universal truth, knowledge, meaning, and purpose. In The Greatness of God, Thompson explores a wide range of topics, including Christian theology, metaphysical philosophy, and an analysis of modern thought and art. He examines the rich history of Christian poetry, prose, and art and takes a look at recent scientific discoveries that help us understand Christian teachings about God’s creation. He concludes with an exploration of the millennium, the eternal kingdom of God, and the spiritual state of America and Europe today.