The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology by Paul Cefalu

Abstract

Religion & Literature 118 The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology Paul Cefalu Cambridge University Press, 2018. 392 pp. $81.00 hardcover. Paul Cefalu has written a definitive account of Johannine theology’s influence on early modern English poetry and its theological milieus. This project is an intervention into recent decades’ prolonged interest in Pauline thought and early modern literature. Cefalu acknowledges this tradition of Pauline scholarship and avers not only that John was just as influential as Paul on early modern English writers but that, with respect to Christology, pneumatology, and soteriology, John may even have been the more significant of the two. Divergences from Pauline thought do not overly preoccupy the book, however. Instead, comparisons are made more frequently to the Synoptic gospels, as in Cefalu’s early reference to the distinct fusion of Christology and pneumatology in the Fourth Gospel’s account of Christ’s baptism. There, John the Baptist remarks, “he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, & remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the holy Ghost” (5; John 1:32-3). Whereas the Synoptics arguably construe a lower view of Christ’s divinity, “[f]or John,” Cefalu comments, “the Spirit affirms the power of God through the presence of the Son” (5). The book is organized topically through a sequence of Johannine themes, all of which in some way fall under the general banner of John’s “high Christolology” (285). These are the doctrine of Christ’s eternal preexistence and a correspondingly high view of his incarnation; a kerygmatic view of the Atonement as revelatory and oriented towards believers’ sanctification; a perspective on the realization of eschatological purification in the present rather than in an apocalyptic future; a theology of assurance in salvation through abiding with Christ; and a rhetorical strategy that presents these four theological themes by leading readers through a journey from misunderstanding to revelation. In addition to these five expressly foregrounded categories, other recurring topoi include the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son, the doctrine of free grace, the symbolic and sacramental significance of blood and water, God as love, a political theology of kosmos, and intimacy or “Christ-mysticism” (317). Cefalu does not delve into questions about the authorship of John’s writings —the Gospel, epistles, and The Revelation. Indeed, there is little biblical criticism in the book. Instead, Johannine theology is introduced primarily through readings of such early modern writers as George Herbert, Henry BOOK REVIEWS 119 Vaughan, Edward Taylor, Richard Crashaw, John Donne, John Milton, and Thomas Traherne. What is Johannine theology after all, Cefalu asks, if not the commonality found in the reception of its pericopes and vocabularies in later literature? Johannine theology is dialectical, taking the form of a speech act of revelation, both circular and post-secular: “Johannine soteriology and theology likewise were sacralizing and enchanting to those early moderns who pledged a Johannine confession of Christ” (36). Early moderns discovered a theology of revelation in John, just as the Jesus depicted in the Fourth Gospel is the revealer of truth and salvation. At regular intervals, The Johannine Renaissance sharpens into detailed interpretations of early modern poems. In the fourth chapter, for example, Cefalu reorganizes observations about glorification, assurance, and revelation that feature in other chapters around the question of how early modern poets follow John’s divergence from the Synoptics’ largely ethical treatment of love—love of neighbor, one’s responsibility to love God—committing instead to the ontological dimensions of God as love. The chapter’s most significant examples come from Herbert, highlighted by a reading of “Assurance.” The poem concludes with the ontological statement: “What for it self love once began, / Now love and truth will end in man” (190). This is “one of Herbert’s most puzzling, hieroglyphic poems” because of the ambiguity of the singular “thought” that haunts the speaker’s belief in the assurance of salvation. Cefalu asks that we consider 1 John, chapter 3, which maintains that “God is greater than our heart” (191). The larger context of this passage, however, includes a discussion of Cain who wields...