ABSTRACT
Hobbes asserts that a contradictory theology eventually undermines itself: people stop believing it. This book is about the interaction between literature and Reformation Christianity-a system of belief which evidently convinced many, but which confronted in a particularly strong form the characteristic problems of monotheism. Protestants attempted a bold and provocative resolution, but eventually it collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. As writers struggled to make sense of their world they acknowledged, inevitably, the demands and tensions of contemporary religion.
