:Prayer and Power: George Herbert and Renaissance Courtship

Abstract

Michael C. Schoenfeldt here offers the first major exploration of the connections between George Herbert's devotional poetry the social practices political discourse of his day. Viewing and Country Parson as part of the larger civilizing process of Western Europe, Schoenfeldt shows how Herbert discovers in the discourses of courtesy theology a common vocabulary of authority, selfhood, petition, discipline. Before entering the priesthood, Herbert nourished contacts in court, was elected University Orator at Cambridge, served in Parliament. In turning to God, Schoenfeldt argues, Herbert did not simply turn away from the secular world but also turned its language, particularly the language of courtesy, into the medium for his lyric worship of God. The confluence of courtesy spirituality in Herbert's poetry provides a fascinating insight into a society searching for an appropriate discourse of reverence in a time of baffling change. The first five chapters investigate the manifold ways in which Herbert's life works exemplify the interdependence of social religious behavior in the English Renaissance. The sixth final chapter extends this investigation into the nervous eroticism of Herbert's poems. Considering Temple as well as Herbert's letters, speeches, Latin poems, collections of foreign proverbs, translations, Country Parson, less familiar lyrics, Schoenfeldt offers a thorough detailed reading of Herbert's rich conflicted corpus. Prayer Power is not only a bold redefinition of the accomplishment of one of the finest poets of the English Renaissance but also the first sustained study to advance a cultural poetics of the religious lyric.