Christian Fantasy: From 1200 to the PresentThis is the first account of invented stories of the Christian supernatural, of fantasies that depict imagined forms of heaven or hell, angel or devil, world and creator; it considers their growth and changes from the time of Dante to the present day. Relatively infrequent, such works nevertheless for centuries represented some of the highest aspirations of art. Works considered here include the French Queste del Saint Graal, Dante's Commedia, the Middle English Pearl, the first book of Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Milton's Paradise Lost, Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell and poems by Blake; and, from the post-Romantic and increasingly less 'Christian' period, the fantasies of George MacDonald, Charles Kingsley, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis and many others. In the development of these works, a primary issue is found to be the fantasy-making imagination itself, at first seen as a potential obstacle to plain Christian purpose, but more recently given freer rein in the new aim of demonstrating God's existence in a more secular world. The picture that emerges is of a literary mode which becomes more fictive and indirect in its presentation of Christian vision. |
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Page 12
... Church was generally hostile to any form of the supernatural which was not miraculosus - that is , issuing from God ... Church . But the Church itself was by now less antagonistic to the use of the marvellous , which it felt it could ...
... Church was generally hostile to any form of the supernatural which was not miraculosus - that is , issuing from God ... Church . But the Church itself was by now less antagonistic to the use of the marvellous , which it felt it could ...
Page 22
... Church militant , as in its crusades against Islam , but was nearer the Church triumphant ; the danger was rather that it might become the Church corrupt . For a time Dante nourished hopes that through the Emperor Henry VII the time of ...
... Church militant , as in its crusades against Islam , but was nearer the Church triumphant ; the danger was rather that it might become the Church corrupt . For a time Dante nourished hopes that through the Emperor Henry VII the time of ...
Page 141
... Church ' liberalism and the growing dominance of science , the role of hell in theology steadily shrinks.12 Nevertheless a continual strain of utopianism in the nineteenth century , together with the impulse of Romantic Sehnsucht , or ...
... Church ' liberalism and the growing dominance of science , the role of hell in theology steadily shrinks.12 Nevertheless a continual strain of utopianism in the nineteenth century , together with the impulse of Romantic Sehnsucht , or ...
Contents
The Faerie Queene Book I | 6 |
The Metaphysical Poets | 94 |
Paradise Lost | 111 |
Copyright | |
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allegory angels Anodos Beatrice becomes Bible biblical Blake Bunyan C. S. Lewis character Charles Williams Christ Christian fantasy Church Commedia creation Dante Dante's death described desire devil divine dragon Duessa earth eternal evil fact Faerie Queene Fairy Land faith fantastic worlds Faustus Faustus's feel figure further God's Grail Heaven and Hell Hideous Strength Holy human idea imagery imagination invented J. R. R. Tolkien journey Kingsley Kingsley's lady Lewis's Lilith Lion literary literature London look MacDonald Medieval Mephostophilis Milton mind Modern Fantasy moral mystic myth narrative nature North Wind novel Paradise Lost pattern Pearl Perelandra Phantastes picture Pilgrim's Progress planet play poem poet portrays Princess and Curdie Purgatory realise reality Redcrosse Satan science fiction seems seen sense Shardik significance soul Spenser spiritual story supernatural Swedenborg Tamburlaine tells theology things Tolkien true truth University Press Victorian vision Water-Babies whole writers