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List of Contributors ix <p><b>Part I Introduction</b> <b>1</b></p> <p>1 General Introduction<br /> <i>Rebecca Lemon, Emma Mason, and Jonathan Roberts</i> 3</p> <p>2 The Literature of the Bible<br /> <i>Christopher Rowland</i> 10</p> <p>3 Biblical Hermeneutics and Literary Theory<br /> <i>David Jasper</i> 22</p> <p><b>Part II Medieval</b> <b>39</b></p> <p>4 Introduction<br /> <i>Daniel Anlezark</i> 41</p> <p>5 Old English Poetry<br /> <i>Catherine A. M. Clarke</i> 61</p> <p>6 The Medieval Religious Lyric<br /> <i>Douglas Gray</i> 76</p> <p>7 The Middle English Mystics<br /> <i>Annie Sutherland</i> 85</p> <p>8 The <i>Pearl</i>-Poet<br /> <i>Helen Barr</i> 100</p> <p>9 William Langland<br /> <i>Sister Mary Clemente Davlin, OP</i> 116</p> <p>10 Geoffrey Chaucer<br /> <i>Christiania Whitehead</i> 134</p> <p><b>Part III Early Modern</b> <b>153</b></p> <p>11 Introduction<br /> <i>Roger Pooley</i> 155</p> <p>12 Early Modern Women<br /> <i>Elizabeth Clarke</i> 169</p> <p>13 Early Modern Religious Prose<br /> <i>Julie Maxwell</i> 184</p> <p>14 Edmund Spenser<br /> <i>Carol V. Kaske</i> 197</p> <p>15 Mary Sidney<br /> <i>Rivkah Zim</i> 211</p> <p>16 William Shakespeare<br /> <i>Hannibal Hamlin</i> 225</p> <p>17 John Donne<br /> <i>Jeanne Shami</i> 239</p> <p>18 George Herbert<br /> <i>John Drury</i> 254</p> <p>19 John Milton<br /> <i>Michael Lieb</i> 269</p> <p>20 John Bunyan<br /> <i>Andrew Bradstock</i> 286</p> <p>21 John Dryden<br /> <i>Gerard Reedy, S.J.</i> 297</p> <p><b>Part IV Eighteenth Century and Romantic</b> <b>311</b></p> <p>22 Introduction<br /> <i>Stephen Prickett</i> 313</p> <p>23 Eighteenth-Century Hymn Writers<br /> <i>J. R. Watson</i> 329</p> <p>24 Daniel Defoe<br /> <i>Valentine Cunningham</i> 345</p> <p>25 Jonathan Swift<br /> <i>Michael F. Suarez, S.J.</i> 359</p> <p>26 William Blake<br /> <i>Jonathan Roberts and Christopher Rowland</i> 373</p> <p>27 Women Romantic Poets<br /> <i>Penny Bradshaw</i> 383</p> <p>28 William Wordsworth<br /> <i>Deeanne Westbrook</i> 397</p> <p>29 S. T. Coleridge<br /> <i>Graham Davidson</i> 413</p> <p>30 Jane Austen<br /> <i>Michael Giffin</i> 425</p> <p>31 George Gordon Byron<br /> <i>Wolf Z. Hirst</i> 438</p> <p>32 P. B. Shelley<br /> <i>Bernard Beatty</i> 451</p> <p><b>Part V Victorian</b> <b>463</b></p> <p>33 Introduction<br /> <i>Elisabeth Jay</i> 465</p> <p>34 The Brownings<br /> <i>Kevin Mills</i> 482</p> <p>35 Alfred Tennyson<br /> <i>Kirstie Blair</i> 496</p> <p>36 The Brontës<br /> <i>Marianne Thormählen</i> 512</p> <p>37 John Ruskin<br /> <i>Dinah Birch</i> 525</p> <p>38 George Eliot<br /> <i>Charles LaPorte</i> 536</p> <p>39 Christina Rossetti<br /> <i>Elizabeth Ludlow</i> 551</p> <p>40 G. M. Hopkins<br /> <i>Paul S. Fiddes</i> 563</p> <p>41 Sensation Fiction<br /> <i>Mark Knight</i> 577</p> <p>42 Decadence<br /> <i>Andrew Tate</i> 587</p> <p><b>Part VI Modernist</b> <b>601</b></p> <p>43 Introduction<br /> <i>Ward Blanton</i> 603</p> <p>44 W. B. Yeats<br /> <i>Edward Larrissy</i> 617</p> <p>45 Virginia Woolf<br /> <i>Douglas L. Howard</i> 629</p> <p>46 James Joyce<br /> <i>William Franke</i> 642</p> <p>47 D. H. Lawrence<br /> <i>T. R. Wright</i> 654</p> <p>48 T. S. Eliot<br /> <i>David Fuller</i> 667</p> <p>49 The Great War Poets<br /> <i>Jane Potter</i> 681</p> <p>Index 696</p>

"An extremely useful volume." (The Year's Work in English Studies, 29 August 2011)<br /> <br /> <p>"Probably what comes across most clearly is how, and that, many of the writers chose deliberately to draw on the Bible, and for students increasingly unfamiliar with the Bible, this approach challenges as well as informs." (<i>Reference Reviews</i>, December 2009)</p> <p>"This is indeed a true companion, one that succeeds in its aim of being both scholarly and accessible to all lovers of English literature. In short, all students of English literature ought to put aside a month to read and study this book before going up to university." (<i>Church Times</i>, August 2009)</p>

<b>Rebecca Lemon</b> is an associate professor of English literature at the University of Southern California. She is the author of <i>Treason by Words: Literature, Law, and Rebellion in Shakespeare's England</i> (2006), as well as articles on Mary Wroth and Petrarchism, Shakespeare and Agamben, and Hayward and censorship. <p> <b>Emma Mason</b> is a senior lecturer in English at the University of Warwick. She is the author of <i>Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century</i> (2006), <i>Nineteenth Century Religion and Literature: An Introduction</i> (with Mark Knight, 2006), and <i>The Cambridge Introduction to Wordsworth</i> (2009).</p> <p> <b>Jonathan Roberts</b> is a lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of <i>William Blake's Poetry</i> (2007), <i>The Bible for Sinners</i> (with Christopher Rowland, 2008), the forthcoming <i>Blake. Wordsworth. Religion.</i> (2009) and is co-editing the forthcoming <i>Oxford Companion to the Reception History of the Bible</i> (2010).</p> <p> <b>Christopher Rowland</b> is Dean Ireland's Professor of Holy Exegesis at the University of Oxford. He has written on radical Christian writings including those of Gerrard Winstanley and William Blake and the Bible. He is the author of a number of books, including <i>The Nature of New Testament Theology</i> (2006), <i>Revelation Through the Centuries</i> (with Judith Kovacs, 2003), and <i>Radical Christian Writings: A Reader</i> (with Andrew Bradstock, 2002), all published by Wiley-Blackwell. Together with John Sawyer and Judith Kovacs he also edits the Blackwell Bible Commentary series.</p>

<i>The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature</i> offers a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary examination of the Bible's role and influence on English Literature, from Old English poetry through to T. S. Eliot. Including examples from medieval, early-modern, eighteenth-century and Romantic, Victorian, and Modernist literature, the book demonstrates how writers from across these periods have been influenced by the Bible in their work. <p>The Companion builds on an existing body of criticism committed to recovering the doctrinal and faith commitments of individual writers, by turning instead to their uses of the Bible as a shared textual focus. This attention to text (rather than belief) means that many 'secular' or 'anti-clerical' writers are included alongside their 'Christian' contemporaries, revealing how the Bible's text shifts and changes in the writing of each author who reads and studies it.</p> <p>Written by leading scholars in the fields of religion, theology and literature, this collection offers readers a detailed introduction to the Bible in English literature, and traces the key developments of biblical themes and literary theory across the canon.</p>

"This magnificent collection completely re-imagines the vast and well-trodden field of the Bible and Literature. From Chaucer to T.S. Eliot, <i>The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature</i> offers a compelling narrative of how the English literary tradition has itself used, re-written and re-visioned sacred texts. In my view, the result is indispensable reading – a Bible no less – for students and scholars alike."<br /> <i>–</i><b>Dr Arthur Bradley,</b> Lancaster University <p>"This is an extremely valuable resource for students, scholars, and anyone else interested in the relationship between the Bible and English Literature. Through a series of stimulating essays, the editors and contributors highlight the unparalleled importance of the Bible within the literary tradition. They explore the multitude of ways in which this sacred text has both shaped and been shaped by the imagination of writers. Our thinking will be much richer as a result of what this book has to say."<br /> <i>–</i><b>Dr Mark Knight,</b> Roehampton University</p>

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