Poetics as Praise: ‘Theology and Literature’, Shakespeare and Doxology

Abstract

This essay challenges the assumption that ‘theology and literature’ deals with two sealed off orders of words, the former establishing a doctrinal ground to which the latter provides merely comparative or corroborative material. It argues instead that language itself, understood as a theological phenomenon, provides the ground through which these two disciplines coincide. This phenomenon can be encountered through a doxological reading of literature, in which the original presence of the Word in words can be encountered as a gift which calls for counter‐gifts. Looking at recent forays into Shakespeare criticism that engages with theology, I argue that a ‘secular’ conception of language prevents readers from encountering this theological phenomenon in the play. Through Oliver‐Thomas Venard's theological reading of Rimbaud, I show that even fiercely secular poetry seems inhabited by a call to recover a connection between words, world and the transcendent. Drawing on Nicholas of Cusa to argue that this connection is ultimately found in doxology, I conclude with a reading of King Lear which, both epitomising and supplementing this approach, shows that the play is inhabited by a call to find once again the profound connection between word and gift, and thus world and God.