Poetry and Revelation: For a Phenomenology of Religious Poetry. By Kevin Hart

Abstract

Few scholars can claim the sort of wide-ranging expertise that we see in the work of Kevin Hart. He has made substantial contributions to Continental philosophy, Christian theology, and literary criticism, and, in addition to this academic work, he is one of today’s finest Australian poets. In his new book, Poetry and Revelation, we see these many elements together in one place. The result is a volume that conveys, perhaps better than any single previous publication, the scope of his scholarly interests and the ambition of his constructive project for extending the application of phenomenology in the Husserlian style to literary and theological material. The book consists mainly in essays that have been previously published elsewhere in some form. Each of its 15 chapters give a close reading of poetry written by a diverse set of sources, from familiar figures such as G. M. Hopkins, T. S. Eliot, Geoffrey Hill, to lesser known poets such as Australians Judith Wright and Robert Gray. The final two chapters, newly written for this collection, treat Marian lyrics and the theme of silence. With each essay Hart examines a religious theme that emerges in the chosen poems, ranging from revelation, transcendence, and the function of theological speech, to prayer, contemplation, and atheism. Hart’s readings are characteristically patient and convincing and his use of phenomenological analysis to illuminate these texts produce original and profound results. He has few rivals in the English-speaking academy in this sort of interdisciplinary endeavour.