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Heaven in Ordinary is like a love affair with poetry that engages with religious questions, for good or ill, concerned with five poets who are haunted by God. Poets, in times of great faith and times of doubt, have expressed for us their sense of both the presence and absence of God in language that is sometimes almost sacramental in its weight of beauty, love, fear, anger or despair. The poets considered in this book all relate, in some way, to the traditions of Anglicanism through the centuries. They reflect both a common humanity and a wide breadth of human experience as it is anguished by God and the divine mystery. The work is deliberately autobiographical in approach, inasmuch as it is grounded in David Jasper¿s own lifetime experience of reading poetry since his school years, and over four decades as an Anglican priest. All the poets here represented reflect an Anglican background, but they are not simply ¿religious¿ poets: they are poets who have related both positively and negatively to the Christian faith and to the Anglican tradition. Some are deeply religious, others are haunted by God but fight against it. These are poets with whom one might live and explore matters of faith in both joy and struggle.
About the author
David Jasper is Emeritus Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and was for many years a Chang Jiang Chair Professor at Renmin University of China, Beijing.
Summary
A personal journey through poetry and faith, exploring the themes of five English poets in relation to Christianity and the Anglican tradition in particular.
