Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Anglican Church

Luke Wright

Description

This book is the first systematic historical examination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's prose religious works. Coleridge (1772-1834), the son of a clergyman, "was born and died a communicating member of the Church of England." He was a prolific writer on the subject of the relationship between church and state. At age twenty-three, Coleridge published his first theological work, Lectures on Revealed Religion, which focused on the concept of reason facilitating virtue. Luke Wright maintains that this theme unites Coleridge's theological writings, including the posthumous Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit (1935). Although he was an advocate of radical politics in the 1790s, by the time Coleridge published The Friend (1809), he had become high Tory. His major contribution to Anglican religious discourse was the revival of the Tory position on church and state, which saw the two as an organic unity rather than separate entities forming an alliance. His writings were vigorously opposed to the Court Whig theory of church and state. After Coleridge's death in 1834, his arguments were taken up by William Gladstone and carried forward. Wright's careful reconstruction of Coleridge's dedication to church-state issues provides a new perspective on the writer himself and on the intellectual history of early nineteenth-century England.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Anglican
• 19th Century
• Modern
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Modern history
• The Friend
• General officer
• Coleridge
• Christianity
• Anglicanism
• Great Britain
• General
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Anglicanisme
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268096649
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

e

u

E

L

ics with valuable new perspectives on a difîcult subject.”

C

O

unînished photo of oil on canvas, 1806.

a

T

l

m

a

6.1955. Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Canterbury Cathedral: West Front, Nave, and Central Tower. Image assembled from 4 photos. Photo © Hans Musil

N C H

I

D G

y

l

R

N G L I C

A

ultimately, traces his idea of a clerisy and inLuence on Gladstone and thus

of church and state. After Coleridge’s death in 1834, his arguments were

N

I

H

V

A

is book is the îrst systematic historical examination of Samuel Taylor 1772 1834 was a proliîc writer

political and theological, was indeed Leeting and that Coleridge made a very signiîcant contribution to what has been called ‘the gathering forces

I

G

H

T

S

R

W

C

K

R C H

U

r

E

o

R

I

E

R

S

a n d

E

K

U

L

T

H

E A

journey through radical politics and high Toryism with an initial and înal commitment to Anglicanism, despite encounters and afîliations with other

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

and the Anglican Church

S a m u e l T a y l o r

C O L E R I D G E

and the Anglican Church

?

L U K E S AV I N H E R R I C K W R I G H T

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2010 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Publishedin the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wright, Luke S.H. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Anglican Church / Luke Savin Herrick Wright. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-268-04418-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-04418-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1.– 1834 —Religion. 2. Coleridge,Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772 Samuel Taylor, 1772 – 1834 —Political and social views. 3. Church and state in literature. 4. Church and state —England—History—19th century. 5. Christianity and politics—History of doctrines—19th century. 6. England—Intellectual life —19th century. I. Title. PR4487.R4W75 2010 821'.7— dc22

2010008788

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

f o r

J E R RY S M I T H a n d

J I M C L AY T O N

c o n t e n t s

P a r t O n e . C o l e r i d g e a s a Yo u n g M a n ———

1 Coleridge’s Political Milieu 3

2 Coleridge’s Religious Milieu 32

3 A Theology of Pantisocracy 59

P a r t Tw o . T h e “ L a n d i n g - P l a c e ” ———

4 Warburton’s and Coleridge’s Readings of Hooker in Counterpoint 85

P a r t T h r e e . C o l e r i d g e ’s M a t u r e P r o j e c t ———

5 The Friend: The Project Outlined

103

6 The Lay Sermons: The Christian’s Actions in Society

133

viii

Contents

7 Aids to Reflection: Dissecting the Changeling

146

8 On the Divine Ideas: Coleridge’s Systematic Theology

9 On the Constitution of the Church and State: The Christian Nature of Society 185

10 Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit: Interpretation of the Scriptures 206

P a r t F o u r. T h e S o u l o f To r y i s m ———

11 Coleridge in a Tory Historical Context

Bibliography 272

Index 282

225

159

Part One ?

Coleridge as a Young Man