ABSTRACT

This book explores the much debated relation of language and bodily experience (i.e. the 'flesh'), considering in particular how poetry functions as revelatory discourse and thus relates to the formal horizon of theological inquiry. The central thematic focus is around a 'phenomenology of the flesh' as that which connects us with the world, being the site of perception and feeling, joy and suffering, and of life itself in all its vulnerability. The voices represented in this collection reflect interdisciplinary methods of interpretation and broadly ecumenical sensibilities, focusing attention on such matters as the revelatory nature of language in general and poetic language in particular, the function of poetry in society, the question of Incarnation and its relation to language and the poetic arts, the kenosis of the Word, and human embodiment in relation to the word 'enfleshed' in poetry.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

Poetry, Incarnation and ‘the wonder of unexpected supply'

part |70 pages

Word made Word

chapter |14 pages

‘The Word spoke in our words that we might speak in his'

Augustine, the Psalms and the poetry of the incarnate Word

chapter |11 pages

The Word of God woven into the poetic word

The idea of Logos in the poetry of George Herbert and Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski

chapter |15 pages

‘Eternity shut in a span'

The Word being born and giving birth in the poetry of Richard Crashaw

part |60 pages

Flesh made Word

part |82 pages

Word made flesh

chapter |15 pages

Incarnations in the ear

On poetry and presence

chapter |16 pages

The poem's muscle, blood and lymph'

David Constantine's poetic bodies

chapter |15 pages

Divine eloquence

R. S. Thomas and the matter of Logos

chapter |17 pages

Epilogue

Poetry as vehicle of divine presence