Christian poetry

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Christian poetry is any poetry that contains Christian teachings, themes, or references. The influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly reference the Bible, while others provide allegory.

History of Christian poetry

Early history

Poetic forms have been used by Christians since the recorded history of the faith begins. The earliest Christian poetry, in fact, appears in the

Paul of Tarsus quotes bits of early Christian hymns in his epistles. Passages such as Philippians
2:5-11 (following) are thought by many Biblical scholars to represent early Christian hymns that were being quoted by the Apostle:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (
KJV
)

A fuller appreciation of the formal literary virtues of Biblical poetry remained unavailable for European Christians until 1754, when Robert Lowth (later made a bishop in the Church of England), kinder to the Hebrew language than his own, published Praelectiones Academicae de Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum, which identified parallelism as the chief rhetorical device within Hebrew poetry.[citation needed]

In the

Roman Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XV
in 1920.

Within the world of

Greek and Latin poetry, which were of course heavily influenced by paganism. Paul quotes the pagan poets Aratus and Epimenides in Acts 17:28: "For in him we live, and move, and have our being: as certain also of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'" Some early Christian poets such as Ausonius continued to include allusions to pagan deities and standard classical figures and allusions continued to appear in his verse. Other Christian poems of the Late Roman Empire, such as the Psychomachia of Prudentius, cut back on allusions to Greek mythology
, but continue the use of inherited classical forms.

Other early Christian poets were more innovative. The hymnodist

prosody
and instead seem to have been based on the rhythmic marching songs of the Roman legions.

A related issue concerned the literary quality of Christian

koinê Greek, as was the Septuagint, the Pre-Christian translation of the Old Testament into Greek. The Old Latin Bible added further solecisms
to those found in its source texts.

None of the Christian scriptures were written to suit the tastes of those who were educated in classical Greek or Latin rhetoric. Educated pagans, seeing the sub-literary quality of the Christian scriptures, posed a problem for Christian apologists: why did the Holy Ghost write so badly? Some Christian writers flatly rejected classical standards of rhetoric, such as Tertullian, who famously asked, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?"

The cultural prestige of classical literary standards was not so easy for other Christians to overcome. St.

Douay-Rheims and the mid-20th-century translation by Monsignor Ronald Knox
.

In many European

Bible translations. Much Old Irish poetry was the work of Irish monks
and is on religious themes. This story is repeated in most European languages.

In

Germanosphere
, but is much longer and also takes in the whole of Jesus' life and ministry.

In Armenian literature, by far the most important Christian poet is St. Gregory of Narek, who was a priest and monk at Narek Monastery near Lake Van during the 10th century.

The

Saint Francis of Assisi in the Umbrian dialect of the Italian language
, but has since been translated into many languages. It is believed to be among the first works of literature, if not the first, written in the Italian language rather than in Latin.

The Divine Comedy represents one of the earliest examples of Italian poetry in the Italian language
.

The Renaissance

The

Gutenberg Revolution, these books were mass produced and gave impetus to the Renaissance, but also caused many intellectuals, writers, and poets to embrace a nostalgia for Classical mythology and an antipathy for Christianity
.

At the same time, however, many European poets adapted the conventions of Ancient Greek and Roman

Renaissance humanist was to choose the New Testament
for a source.

For example, in

heroic couplets, were published by John Cranwell in 1768 and by Edward Granan in 1771.[2]

Jesus Christ
. Unfortunately, the Davidiad was long considered to be lost. A manuscript was re-discovered only in 1924, only to be lost again and re-discovered in 1952.

In addition to the small portions that attempt to recall the epics of

philologist Miroslav Marcovich also detected, "the influence of Ovid, Lucan, and Statius
" in the work.

Marulić also wrote the epic poem

Glagolitic original of the legend; the work thus foreshadows the unity of Croatian language
.

Reformation and the Baroque era

The

Calvinist hymns of Gerhard Tersteegen, and the Catholic hymns of Angelus Silesius and Friedrich Spee
.

During the

Romantics rediscovered him."[3]

In France in 1573, the Huguenot courtier and poet

Ronsard. His reputation was less at home than it was abroad, where he was regarded, especially among Protestants, as one of the great geniuses of poetry". Bartas' influence upon John Milton, "was very extensive."[4]

In 1587, Du Bartas published La Sepmaine ou Création a 7,500 line poem about the creation of the world and the Fall of Man. Despite drawing "his form from Homer, Virgil, and Ariosto", Du Bartas drew his subject-matter chiefly from

Joshua Sylvester.[5]

Also during the

Jesus Christ and for using the gods and demigods of Greek and Roman mythology, similarly to The Inklings, to point out the greatness of Jesus.[6]

When the first volume of his

Jesus Christ to figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the Bishop wrote, "[I am] drawn by that learned piety which so happily makes you transform the Pagan Muses into Christian ones."[7]

When the second volume of the Theorems appeared in 1622, La Ceppède dedicated it to King

Louis XIII, in celebration of both the King's recent coming of age and his military victory against an uprising of the Huguenots of Languedoc, which had been led by Henri, Duke of Rohan.[8]

According to Christopher Blum, "The Theorems is not only poetry, it is a splendid work of erudition, as each sonnet is provided with a commentary linking it to

harlot Lady Poetry had been unstitched of 'her worldly habits' and shorn of her 'idolatrous, lying and lascivious hair' by the 'two-edged razor of profound meditation on the Passion and death of our Saviour.'"[9]

In 1624, the year following Jean de La Ceppède's death,

Henri Bremond and appeared in the first volume of his book Histoire littéraire du Sentiment religieux en France. Since then, La Ceppède's poetry has experienced a revival. It has appeared in multiple poetry anthologies and several scholarly works have been written about its author.[10]

Meanwhile, a temporary effect of the

Puritan
Movement.

In response to both Puritan attacks on verse and the secular subjects that inspired most English poetry at the time,

Bolshevik Revolution
.

In a forward to his poems, which many scholars believe was addressed to Southwell's cousin,

His Spouse a method to imitate, as in the office of the Church it appeareth and all men a pattern to know this measured and footed style. But the Devil, as he affecteth deity and seeketh to have all the compliments of Divine honor applied to his service, so hath he among the rest possessed also most poets with his idle fancies. For in lieu of solemn and devout matter, to which in duty they owe their abilities, they now busy themselves in expressing such passions as only serve for testimonies to how unworthy affections they have wedded their Wiles. And because the best the best course to let them see the error of their works is to weave a new web in their own loom; I have here laid a few coarse threads together to invite some skillfuller wits to go forward in the same or to begin some finer piece wherein it may be seen, how well verse and virtue suit together. Blame me not, (good cousin) though I send you a blameworthy present, in which the most that can commend it, is the good will of the writer, neither art not invention giving it any credit. If in me this be a fault, you cannot be dauntless that did importune me to commit it, and therefore you must bear part of the penance, when it shall please sharp censures to impose. In the meantime with many good wishes I send you these few ditties add you the tunes and let the mean I pray be still a part in all your music."[11]

Even though Southwell was captured, tortured, convicted of

high treason and executed at Tyburn in 1595, the underground priest-poet's illegal poetry helped inspire the Metaphysical poets, such as William Alabaster, John Donne, Richard Crashaw, and George Herbert
, to write Christian religious poetry as well.

More recently, the posthumous 1873 publication of Southwell's translation into

Elizabethan English of Fray Diego de Estella's Meditaciónes devotíssimas del amor de Dios ("A Hundred Meditations on the Love of God") helped inspire Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins to write the poem The Windhover.[12]

During the Reformation in

religious pilgrimages.[15]

This was no idle claim. When unlicensed bard

feast day is celebrated on 17 October. Six works of Welsh poetry by Richard Gwyn, five carols and a funeral ode, have been discovered and published.[16]

In

Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross composed verse that remains an immortal part of the canon of Spanish poetry
.

Also, while serving as professor of

Judaiser. Fray Luis was accordingly imprisoned for four years by the Spanish Inquisition before he was ruled to be completely innocent of any wrongdoing and released without charge. While the conditions of his imprisonment were never harsh and he was allowed complete access to books, according to legend, Fray Luis started his first post-Inquisition University of Salamanca lecture with the words, "As I was saying the other day..."[17]

According to

Renaissance in Spain during the sixteenth-century. This means that as a consequence of the Counter-Reformation, and especially of the judgments and rulings of the Council of Trent, the secular Italianate forms and themes brought into Spain by Garcilasco were used by subsequent writers to explore moral, spiritual, and religious topics. The poets and humanists who were the followers of Fray Luis in the sixteenth-century formed the influential School of Salamanca."[18]

In

literary scholars to have been a major influence upon the Christian epic poetry of John Milton
.

The Age of Reason and after

In England, the Dissenting and renewal movements of the 18th century saw a marked increase in the number and publication of new hymns due to the activity of Protestant poets such as Isaac Watts, the father of English hymns, Philip Doddridge, Augustus Toplady, and especially John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism.[19] In the 19th century hymn singing came to be accepted in the Church of England, and numerous books of hymns for that body appeared.

In 1704, when

passion, death and resurrection of Jesus
.

The uninterrupted recitation or Pabasa of the whole epic is a popular

Lenten season, and particularly during Holy Week
.

In 2011, the performing art was cited by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Philippines under the performing arts category that the government may nominate in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.[20]

In America with the

All things bright and beautiful. Anna B. Warner
wrote the poem "Jesus loves me," which, put to music, many Christian children learn to this day.

During an 1893 Welsh

Jesus of Nazareth").[22] Rev. Reese went on to become the Archdruid of the Gorsedd Cymru and to announce the posthumous victory of Hedd Wyn at the infamous 1917 "Eisteddfod of the Black Chair."[23]

Christian poetry figured prominently in the Western literary canon from the Middle Ages through the 18th century.[24]

However with the progressive

Western Civilization from about 1500 until the present,[25]
Christian poetry was less and less represented in literary and academic writing of the 19th and 20th centuries and scarcely at all in the 21st century.

Modern Christian poetry

Twentieth and 21st century Christian poetry especially suffers from a difficulty of definition. The writings of a Christian poet are not necessarily classified as Christian poetry nor are writings of secular poets dealing with Christian material. The themes of poetry are necessarily hard to pin down, and what some see as a Christian theme or viewpoint may not be seen by others. A number of modern writers are widely considered to have Christian themes in much of their poetry, including

C.S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, and Elizabeth Jennings
.

In 1976,

Mohandas K. Gandhi in order, like The Inklings and Jean de La Ceppède
, to point out the greatness of Jesus.

Within 20th-century

Christmas Day.[27]

Within

literary movement in American poetry, there are several authors of Christian poetry. They include Dana Gioia, Frederick Turner
, David Middleton, and James Matthew Wilson.

When asked by

death of God. You really couldn't be a respectable thinker unless you made an act of faith that there is nothing but matter in the world. We now know, of course, from countless scientific discoveries, that matter itself has a relatively late appearance in the universe, and if the universe looks like anything, it looks like a gigantic thought, which Eddington claimed a long time ago. The best metaphor for the universe is not a gigantic machine, but rather a thought, which from a theological point of view is perfectly reasonable. But there's still a lot of pressure to conform in the arts and academia, and it also has professional ramifications. People could certainly lose their jobs for expressing themselves like Hopkins, Dickinson, or Milton – or they wouldn't get those jobs in the first place."[28]

Modern Christian poetry may be found in anthologies and in several Christian magazines such as Commonweal, Christian Century and Sojourners.[29] Poetry by a new generation of Catholic poets appears in St. Austin Review, Dappled Things, The Lamp, and First Things.

In a 2022 interview with

Third Polish Republic as reflecting, "the deleterious influence of the contemporary civilisation on the American soul." In response, StAR co-editor Joseph Pearce described "the neo-formalist revival" inspired by the late Richard Wilbur and how it has been reflected in recent verse by the Catholic poets whom he and Robert Asch publish in StAR. Pearce said that the Catholic faith and optimism of the younger generation of Catholic poets made him feel hope for the future.[30]

Examples of Christian poets

The following list is chronological by birth year.

Examples of Christian poems and notable works

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-8028-3450-7
    .
  2. ^ Watson Kirkconnell (1952), The Celestial Cycle: The Theme of Paradise Lost in World Literature with Translations of the Major Analogues, University of Toronto Press. Page 546.
  3. ^ Keith Bosley (1983), From the Theorems of Master Jean de La Ceppède: LXX Sonnets, page 4.
  4. ^ Watson Kirkconnell (1952), The Celestial Cycle: The Theme of Paradise Lost in World Literature with Translations of the Major Analogues, University of Toronto Press. Pages 569-570.
  5. ^ Watson Kirkconnell (1952), The Celestial Cycle: The Theme of Paradise Lost in World Literature with Translations of the Major Analogues, University of Toronto Press. Page 570-571.
  6. Crisis Magazine
    , April 2, 2012.
  7. ^ Bosley (1983), From The Theorems of Master Jean de La Ceppède, page 5.
  8. ^ Bosley (1983), page 5.
  9. Crisis Magazine
    , April 2, 2012.
  10. ^ Bosley (1983), pages 3-5.
  11. Fyfield Books
    . Pages 1-2.
  12. ^ Gary M. Bouchard (2018), Southwell's Sphere: The Influence of England's Secret Poet, St. Augustine's Press. Pages 187-210.
  13. ^ Hywel Teifi Edwards (2010), The Eisteddfod, pages 10.
  14. ^ Hywel Teifi Edwards (2010), The Eisteddfod, pages 8-10.
  15. ^ Philip Caraman, The Other Face: Catholic Life under Elizabeth I, Longman, Green and Co Ltd. Page 53.
  16. ^ Burton, Edwin. 'The Venerable Richard White', Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 15, p. 612 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912)Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  17. ^ Edith Grossman (2006), The Golden Age: Poems of the Spanish Renaissance, W.W. Norton, New York. Page 101.
  18. ^ Edith Grossman (2006), The Golden Age: Poems of the Spanish Renaissance, W.W. Norton, New York. Page 102.
  19. ISBN 0-8028-3450-7
    .
  20. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-08-19. Retrieved 2021-07-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. ISBN 9780521454292
    .
  22. ^ Hywel Teifi Edwards (2016), The Eiseddfod, University of Wales Press. Page 31.
  23. ^ Alan Llwyd (2009), Stori Hedd Wyn, Bardd y Gadair Ddu (The Story of Hedd Wyn, the Poet of the Black Chair), page 13.
  24. ISBN 0-19-213426-4
    .
  25. ISBN 9780674026766
    .
  26. ^ Translated by Joseph P. Clancy (1993), Saunders Lewis: Selected Poems, University of Wales Press. Pages ix-x.
  27. ^ Translated by Joseph P. Clancy (1993), Saunders Lewis: Selected Poems, University of Wales Press. Page ix.
  28. ^ William Baer (2016), Thirteen on Form: Conversations with Poets, page 197.
  29. ISBN 0-8091-2883-7
    .
  30. ^ Poetry and Modern Culture: An Interview With Joseph Pearce by Anna Szyda. May 17th, 2022.

Further reading

  • Edited by Burl Horniachek (2023), To Heaven's Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry. Beginnings to 1800 in English Translation, Cascade Books.
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