Theology of John Donne

JEFFREY JOHNSON is Associate Professor of English at College Misericordia in Dallas, Pennsylvania.

A very good book. SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL This...reading of Donne's theology through a close examination of a range of his sermons...is indispensable reading for the scholar interested in understanding the nuances of theological belief in the period.

• Part 1 So steepy a place: St Dunstan-in-the-West; "Faciamus hominem"; "Regula fidei"; reason and the Trinity; "Vestigia Trinitatis"; Donne and Calvin; April 1629; Whitsuntide; unity v singularity. Part 2 To batter Heaven: Lincoln's Inn Chapel; the care and piety of the Church; prescribed by Thy Son; my particular necessities; fasting and prayer; "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions". Part 3 Through his own red glasse: Whitehall Palace; "Vae Idololatris, Vae Iconoclastis"; God's wardrobe; such "Glasses" and such "Images"; Hanworth, 1622; "Visionem Dei, Unionem". Part 4 Voice of the turtle: St Paul's Cross; "Aversio and Conversio"; the churching of women; "Baptismate Lachrymarum"; gold in the washes; "Vox Turturis". Part 5 O taste and see: Donne at Heidelberg; prevenient and subsequent; the root and fruit; the dew, and breath in the ayre; "Gustate & Videte".