Customer Reviews

Auden and Christianity

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The older W. H. Auden was not outspoken about his religious convictions, but his Christianity does underpin many of his later poems, and the most sensitive readers of Auden have always known it. Now Arthur Kirsch has produced an excellent, readable study of this often-neglected aspect of Auden's life and poetry. The book is short and accessible to the student, but also interesting to the specialist. Kirsch demonstrates, conclusively I think, what other critics like Monroe Spears and Edward Mendelson have suggested more generally: that Auden's Christianity in all its peculiarities is central to the poetry of his middle and later periods. Other critics have argued that the Christianity that Auden espoused in the early 1940s was a fatal imposition upon an otherwise brilliant early career, but Kirsch reveals the extent to which Auden's religion informed and energized many of his well-known poems, even those that are admired by readers who despise Auden's religion.

Kirsch admits that he writes the book "from the outside," that is, as a non-Christian. That is both an asset and a liability. Kirsch's personal disinterestedness in the Christian religion allows him to explore Auden's somewhat heterodox views without being tempted to shoehorn the poet into a artificially orthodox categories, though there are points at which Kirsch ascribes to Auden more heterodox ideas than are necessarily warranted by the best evidence available. (For example, his account on pages 20-22 of Auden's doubting the resurrection of Christ should be more nuanced.) Nevertheless, Kirsch is almost always accurate in his assessment of Auden's personal beliefs and produces sound but not copious evidence from both poetry and prose to make a compelling case. But as a non-Christian, Kirsch is not always aware of certain theological nuances that were important to Auden. A reader will search in vain for detailed explanations of Auden's "Augustinian" outlook on human nature, for instance, or for his early antipathy towards "natural law." To be fair though, Kirsch did not set out to write a detailed account of the theological particularities of Auden's religion, so it is understandable that he occasionally conflates distinct theological ideas and overgeneralizes about the variegated nature of Christianity generally. However much a theologically nuanced book on Auden's religion would help readers of Auden, this is not that book. But it is the best comprehensive overview of Auden's religion that we have so far seen, and for that all readers of Auden must be grateful.

I adore WH Auden's gifted poetry and in this book we have a glimpse at his conflicted tussle with Christianity. It is such a human book, written about an intensely human, yet magnificent poet that it is well worth buying for those not convinced by over pious texts and those who relate to the contradictions, conflict and peace found within Christianity and belief.