Redemption in Poetry and Philosophy - Paperback

by Simon Haines (Author)

A biblical understanding of redemption requires the sacrificial death of Jesus. In the post-Christian world envisioned by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his Enlightenment contemporaries, the Christ-centric source of redemption disappears, though the human need for salvation remains. Redemption in Poetry and Philosophy explores how this need for redemption is realized in the post-Christian poetics of William Wordsworth and philosophical imagination of Immanuel Kant. Simon Haines critiques the secular modes of salvation articulated by each figure to illustrate the shortcomings of modern, post-Christian imagination. Redemption in Poetry and Philosophy highlights the ways in which prose allegedly serves as a redemptive agent for nonbelievers in the modern age, but also engenders dangerous notions of self-redemption in contemporary Christians.

Author Biography

Simon Haines is Professor and Chair of English, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.