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 34
... remains in death " ( 55 ) . The " Gospel truth " that Buechner cites ( from 1 John 3:18 ) is no more true than the ... remain deranged : “ When he appeared in good health he was still stricken with the strangest craze that ever yet had ...
... remains in death " ( 55 ) . The " Gospel truth " that Buechner cites ( from 1 John 3:18 ) is no more true than the ... remain deranged : “ When he appeared in good health he was still stricken with the strangest craze that ever yet had ...
Page 41
... remain outside the texts we wish we could know from the inside . If , on the other hand , we retain in some form the distinction be- tween insiders and outsiders - or , to put it in a less tendentious way , those who have relatively ...
... remain outside the texts we wish we could know from the inside . If , on the other hand , we retain in some form the distinction be- tween insiders and outsiders - or , to put it in a less tendentious way , those who have relatively ...
Page 129
... remain " gathering multitudes outside / Whose glances hunger worsens . " In the young Auden's scheme of val- ues , Dinah's kind of charity remains private and hence apolitical , even if it is not preferential . What we see here , in the ...
... remain " gathering multitudes outside / Whose glances hunger worsens . " In the young Auden's scheme of val- ues , Dinah's kind of charity remains private and hence apolitical , even if it is not preferential . What we see here , in the ...
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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