J. Robert Barth's Books

Romanticism and Transcendence

Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination

By: J. Robert Barth

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Romanticism and Transcendence

Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination

By: J. Robert Barth

Grounded in the thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Romanticism and Transcendence explores the religious dimensions of imagination in the Romantic tradition, both theoretically and in the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge. J. Robert Barth suggests that we may look to Coleridge for the theoretical grounding of the view of religious imagination proposed in this book, but that it is in Wordsworth above all that we see this imagination at work. Barth first argues that the Romantic imagination--with its profound symbolic import--of its very nature has religious implications, and notes parallels between Coleridge's view of the imagination and that of Ignatius Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises. He then turns to the role of religious experience in Wordsworth, using The Prelude as a privileged source. Next, after comparing the conception of humanity and God in Wordsworth and Coleridge, Barth considers the role of religious experience and imagery in two of Coleridge's central poetic texts, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel. Finally, Barth examines the continuing role of the Romantic idea of the religious imagination today, in literature and all the arts, linking it with the thought of theologian Karl Rahner and literary critic George Steiner. Romanticism and Transcendence brings together literary theory, poetry, and religious experience, areas that are interrelated but are often not seen in relationship. By exploring levels of Wordsworth's and Coleridge's poetry that are often ignored, Barth provides insight into how and why the imagination was so important to their work. He also demonstrates how rich with religious value and meaning poetry and the arts can be. The interdisciplinary nature of this important new study will make it useful not only to Wordsworth and Coleridge scholars and other Romantic specialists, but also to anyone concerned with the intellectual history of the nineteenth century and to theologians in general.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

180

Publisher

University of Missouri Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0826214533

ISBN 13

9780826214539

The Symbolic Imagination

Coleridge and the Romantic Tradition

By: J. Robert Barth

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Symbolic Imagination

Coleridge and the Romantic Tradition

By: J. Robert Barth

The original edition of this book studied the nature of symbol in Coleridge's work, showing that it is central to Coleridge's intellectual endeavor in poetry and criticism as well as in philosophy and theology. Symbol was for Coleridge essentially a religious reality, that participates in the nature of a sacrament as an encounter between material and spiritual reality. The author shows how Wordsworth and Coleridge developed a poetry, unlike that of the eighteenth century, based on symbolic imagination. He then related this symbolic poetry to the tradition of romanticism itself Richard Harter Fogle wrote of the original edition: "This is a just, graceful, and penetrating book. Considering the complexity of the material, it is lucid and often eloquent. Father Barth's interpretation of Coleridge's doctrine of symbol is essentially original, as are his illustrative readings from the poems. His substantial essay moves harmoniously from Coleridge's particular insights to their wider implications for romanticism." In this new edition, the author has enlarged the scope of his study, first reviewing in an introductory chapter the important scholarship of the past twenty years on symbol and imagination. He then goes on to give his work a deeper theological foundation, and to extend his argument to embrace what he calls Coleridge's "scriptural imagination." As in the original edition, he concludes that symbol is a phenomenon profoundly linked with the experience of romanticism itself and with a fundamental change in religious sensibility that has echoes even in our own time.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

176

Publisher

Fordham Univ Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

082322113X

ISBN 13

9780823221134

Coleridge and Christian Doctrine

By: Robert J. Barth

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Coleridge and Christian Doctrine

By: Robert J. Barth

Long established as a major poet and critic of the Romantic era, Samuel Taylor Coleridge is now becoming recognized as one of the first and most original modern religious thinkers. In 1815 he wrote the Biographia Literaria, and from that time on there was in his writings a noticeable shift to nonliterary subjects, especially religion. Using all available sources in the U.S., Canada, and England, J. Robert Barth, S.J., has found Coleridge's religious speculations in his notebooks, in such works as Aids to Reflection and Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, in letters, in the unpublished manuscript of his "Opus Maximum," in marginalia, and in conversations recorded by his nephew in Table Talk. Father Barth has synthesized these theological ideas and shaped Coleridge's scattered and constantly developing religious thoughts into a coherent pattern.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

215

Published Date

ISBN 10

0823295303

ISBN 13

9780823295302

Book's by J. Robert Barth

Romanticism and Transcendence

Romanticism and Transcendence

The Symbolic Imagination

The Symbolic Imagination

Coleridge and Christian Doctrine

Coleridge and Christian Doctrine

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email