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. |
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Page 26
... feel what other people's lives are or might be , and so we shall only be more tender to ' em , and wishful to help ' em . The more knowledge a man has the better he'll do ' s work ; and feeling's a sort o ' knowledge . ( 553 ) In other ...
... feel what other people's lives are or might be , and so we shall only be more tender to ' em , and wishful to help ' em . The more knowledge a man has the better he'll do ' s work ; and feeling's a sort o ' knowledge . ( 553 ) In other ...
Page 28
... feeling , as possessing infi- nitely all those attributes which we recognize to be moral in humanity . ... The idea of a God who not only sympathizes with all we feel and en- dure for our fellow - men , but who will pour new life into ...
... feeling , as possessing infi- nitely all those attributes which we recognize to be moral in humanity . ... The idea of a God who not only sympathizes with all we feel and en- dure for our fellow - men , but who will pour new life into ...
Page 86
... feel sinful about it ! The point is that whoever demands great things of himself , and achieves those things , must feel quite remote from those who do not . Such distance will be interpreted by others as a " putting on airs ” ; but he ...
... feel sinful about it ! The point is that whoever demands great things of himself , and achieves those things , must feel quite remote from those who do not . Such distance will be interpreted by others as a " putting on airs ” ; but he ...
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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