A Theology Of Reading: The Hermeneutics Of LoveIf the whole of the Christian life is to be governed by the “law of love”—the twofold love of God and one's neighbor—what might it mean to read lovingly? That is the question that drives this unique book. Jacobs pursues this challenging task by alternating largely theoretical, theological chapters—drawing above all on Augustine and Mikhail Bakhtin—with interludes that investigate particular readers (some real, some fictional) in the act of reading. Among the authors considered are Shakespeare, Cervantes, Nabakov, Nicholson Baker, George Eliot, W.H. Auden, and Dickens. The theoretical framework is elaborated in the main chapters, while various counterfeits of or substitutes for genuinely charitable interpretation are considered in the interludes, which progressively close in on that rare creature, the loving reader. Through this doubled method of investigation, Jacobs tries to show how difficult it is to read charitably—even should one wish to, which, of course, few of us do. And precisely because the prospect of reading in such a manner is so offputting, one of the covert goals of the book is to make it seem both more plausible and more attractive. |
From inside the book
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Page 26
... Dinah's love of Adam and her love of God need not compete with one another , but can be complementary forces in the expansion of Dinah's character , the strengthening of the affections that bind our lives and our neighbors ' in mutual ...
... Dinah's love of Adam and her love of God need not compete with one another , but can be complementary forces in the expansion of Dinah's character , the strengthening of the affections that bind our lives and our neighbors ' in mutual ...
Page 27
... Dinah Morris , which George Eliot would delineate just three years later : " A wife is not to devote herself to her husband out of love to him and a sense of the du- ties implied by a close relation — she is to be a faithful wife for ...
... Dinah Morris , which George Eliot would delineate just three years later : " A wife is not to devote herself to her husband out of love to him and a sense of the du- ties implied by a close relation — she is to be a faithful wife for ...
Page 128
... Dinah's love for Adam is " doubtful " to her . But what is of greater interest here is the other half of each equa- tion : For Dinah , as we saw , the partiality and the private satisfactions of her love for Adam are opposed by the ...
... Dinah's love for Adam is " doubtful " to her . But what is of greater interest here is the other half of each equa- tion : For Dinah , as we saw , the partiality and the private satisfactions of her love for Adam are opposed by the ...
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Common terms and phrases
achieve Adam Bede agape Alasdair MacIntyre Alcibiades argument Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's attention Auden Augustine Augustine's Augustinian Baker Bakhtin Buffalo Bill C. S. Lewis calls Cartesian Chapter character charitable reading charity Christ Christian circus claim Claudio and Don context course criticism cultural Derrida Dickens Dickens's Dickinson Dinah Dinah Morris discernment discourse distinction Don Pedro essay ethical eudaimonia friendship Gadamer genuine George Eliot gift Gradgrind hermeneutics hermeneutics of love Hero human I-for-myself interpretation Iris Murdoch Jacques Derrida Jesus justice kenosis Kierkegaard Kinbote kind knowledge language literary live magnanimous means Milbank moral narrator neighbor Nietzsche Nietzsche's notion Nussbaum one's oneself pagan Pale Fire passage perhaps person philia pleasure poem political precisely question Quixotic quoted reader Rich Scripture sense Shade simply Sleary Sleary's spirit theology things thought tion Tompkins tradition truth understanding Updike Vereker virtue W. H. Auden words writes Zarathustra