David Jones: A Christian Modernist?


Book Description

David Jones: A Christian Modernist? is a major reassessment of the work of the poet, artist and essayist David Jones (1895-1974) in light of the complex, ambiguous idea of a ‘Christian modernism’. His richly experimental and palimpsestic poetry, art and thought drew extensively on Christian tradition and symbolism as a key to the future: rejecting a technocratic and utilitarian modernity in favour of a revitalised culture of sign and sacrament. This volume examines historical influences on Jones’s development, his impassioned engagement with the idea of modernity and with modernist literature and art, the theological sources and resonances of his work, and contemporary or late-modern perspectives on his achievement.




David Jones


Book Description

The first full biography of a neglected genius and one of the great Modernists, lavishly illustrated in colour throughout ‘I would like to have done anything as good as David Jones has done’ Dylan Thomas As a poet, visual artist and essayist, David Jones is one of the great Modernists. The variety of his gifts reminds us of Blake – though he is a better poet and a greater all-round artist. Jones was an extraordinary engraver, painter and creator of painted inscriptions, but he also belongs in the first rank of twentieth-century poets. Though he was admired by some of the finest cultural figures of the twentieth century, David Jones is not known or celebrated in the way that Eliot, Beckett or Joyce have been. His work was occasionally as difficult as theirs, but it is just as rewarding – and more various. He is overlooked because his best writing is imbedded in two book-length prose-poems – In Parenthesis and The Anathemata, making it difficult to anthologise; the work is informed by his Catholic faith and so may feel unfashionable in this secular age; he was a shy, reclusive man, psychologically damaged by his time in the trenches, and loathed any kind of self-promotion. Mostly, though, he was a complete and original poet-artist – sui generis, impossible to pigeon-hole – and that has led to the neglect of David Jones: a true genius and the great lost Modernist.




Health, Wealth, and Happiness


Book Description

Be faithful in your giving and God will reward you financially. It's not always stated that blatantly but the promises of the Prosperity Gospel--or the name-it-and-claim-it gospel, the health-and-wealth gospel, the word of faith movement, or positive confession theology--are false. Yet its message permeates the preaching of well-known Christian leaders: Joyce Meyer, T. D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and many more. The appeal of this teaching crosses racial, gender, denominational, and international boundaries. Why are otherwise faithful Christians so easily led astray? Because the Prosperity Gospel contains a grain of biblical truth, greatly distorted. For anyone who knows that Prosperity Gospel theology is wrong but has trouble articulating and refuting the finer points, this concise edition contains all the robust arguments of the hard-hitting original edition in a shorter, more accessible form.




An Introduction to Biblical Ethics


Book Description

An introductory text explaining the nature, relevancy, coherency, and structure of the moral law as revealed throughout the Bible, with discussion of the Ten Commandments as a moral rubric and a subsequent application of each commandment to Christian living.




The Image of Christ in Modern Art


Book Description

The Image of Christ in Modern Art explores the challenges, presented by the radical and rapid changes of artistic style in the 20th century, to artists who wished to relate to traditional Christian imagery. In this highly illustrated book, Richard Harries




David Jones on Religion, Politics, and Culture


Book Description

David Jones – author of In Parenthesis, the great poem of World War I – is increasingly recognized as a major voice in the first generation of British modernist writers. Acclaimed by the likes of T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and W.H. Auden, his writing was deeply informed by his Catholic faith and Welsh blood. This book makes available for the first time a number of previously unpublished statements by Jones that open new perspectives on his own work and the religious, political, and cultural engagements of British modernism more broadly. Annotated throughout, with detailed commentaries exploring the historical context of each document, the volume presents the restored text of Jones's essay on Hitler and includes a letter to Neville Chamberlain, an unfinished essay on Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the transcript of an interview with Jones a year before his death. These reveal an unknown side of Jones and give fresh insight into the influences and assumptions of 20th-century British literary culture.




David Jones and Rome


Book Description

Introduction:'at the turn of time' --Part I. David Jones and empire --Introduction to Part I:The political formation of the Roman analogy --Shaping Rome through 'contactual' experience: war and post-war disillusionment --British imperial rhetoric: subverting the Roman analogy of empire --Expanding the Roman imperial analogy: fascism, communism, and the co-agency of empires --Part II. David Jones and cyclical historyIntroduction to Part II:The Roman precedent for the decline of western civilisation --Cyclical history and Roman decline: a theoretical foundation for the Roman fragments --The forms of the late civilisational phase: charting the decline of the West from Roman precedents --The antithesis of culture and civilisation: examining Spenglerian principles in Roman poetry --Part III. David Jones and culture --Introduction to Part III: Recovering Rome in the pursuit of Western unity and continuity --Investigating cultural decline: the Classical and Christian traditions --Reconnecting with Rome: the fight for the unity and continuity of Western culture --Jones's cultural theory: re-establishing the bridge in response to the break --Part IV. David Jones and Wales --Introduction to Part IV:The Roman foundation of the Welsh nation --Reimagining cultural decline: the fight for Wales as Britain s last link to Rome --Rewriting Welsh history: establishing Wales as a Roman nation --Cultural dynamics: the place of Rome in the bridge --Conclusion:'down the history maze'.




The Art of David Jones


Book Description

This book offers a concise and highly readable account of the visual art of David Jones (1895-1974). It challenges the simplistic view of Jones as an outsider or an eccentric, exploring his work instead in relation to the wider cultural and intellectual climate of his times.




David Jones's The Grail Mass and Other Works


Book Description

Drawing on new archival discoveries, this book presents an authoritative reconstruction of David Jones's The Grail Mass, the unfinished and unpublished project from which came both his masterpiece The Anathemata – a work described by W.H. Auden as 'one of the most important poems of our times' – and The Sleeping Lord and other fragments, his final collection. With detailed commentary on the development and reconstruction of the text, this edition provides a full picture of Jones's literary endeavours over the second half of his life and further establishes his status as a major figure in the first wave of British modernist writers alongside T.S. Eliot and James Joyce. In addition to the text of The Grail Mass, this edition includes a number of unpublished fragments by Jones that emerged from this larger project, complete with textual commentaries.




Knowing and Doing the Will of God


Book Description

Christians rightly believe that within the pages of the Bible God reveals His moral will to His people. Indeed, by studying Scripture believers can learn to follow God's moral standards, which address a wide range of life issues. Yet, many Christians wrestle with the idea of knowing and doing what they believe to be a special individual will of God for their lives. As commonly understood, this individual will is related to subjects such as what school to attend, whom to marry, which church to join, what career path to pursue, what purchases to make, and a host of other similar issues. In this book author David W. Jones examines the important concept of the will of God and suggests that Scripture alone is sufficient for Christian life and practice.In the process of looking at God's will in Scripture this book helps readers to understand the meaning of major biblical passages that speak about God's will. Topics that are explored and explained in this clear volume include: the difference between true and false prophets, the practice of casting lots, the biblical use of the Urim and Thummim, the place of dreams and visions in the Christian life, the idea of angelic visitation, as well as the use of supernatural signs to know the will of God. Additionally, this text includes discussions about the place of prayer in decision making, the role of the Holy Spirit in revelation, and suggestions for how so-called weaker and stronger brethren can interact regarding issues of Christian liberty.