Is Hermes the Hierophant, or Is Christ?The Genesis of Secrecy: On the Interpretation of Narrative. Frank Kermode

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

When the literary critic and the New Testament scholar meet, it is like the meeting of people who know they are relatives but who do not quite know what to do with each other. There is between them a certain shyness, there are expectations, and there is the fear of disappointment. The analogy may illustrate the strange relationship that exists between literary criticism and New Testament scholarship. They are relatives who share an important part of world literature and unknown quantities of methodology. But usually they keep their distance, presumably for the sake of prudence and mutual respect, and meet only occasionally. Frank Kermode's book is the result of such an occasional meeting, the invitation to give the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University in 1977-78. To continue the image, the meeting of the relatives was a success, and so is the resultant book. Part of the success comes from an