The Poets' Jesus: Representations at the End of a Millennium [Hardcover]

Peggy Rosenthal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2000

Poets have always been the medium through which a culture talks of, and to, its gods. Now, in this learned but lively commentary, Peggy Rosenthal shows us the astonishing range of poetic encounters with Jesus. With a special emphasis on twentieth-century poetry, Rosenthal draws from an unprecedented range of world poetry--from Africa, the Arab world, and the Far East to Latin America and the West--to give readers an understanding of how different times and different cultures have affected the way poets refigure Jesus and of how poets' fascination with the man from Nazareth transcends all barriers. She also demonstrates that, despite the twentieth century's self-definition as a secular and post-Christian epoch, it has produced poetry about Jesus of truly surprising quality and variety. Impeccably researched and extremely accessible, The Poets Jesus will strongly appeal to scholars of poetry and religion as well as for all general readers of poetry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The Poets' Jesus] is a short, reader-friendly account of how poets have rendered Jesus, primarily from the 19th century to the present. This book is also, in passing, a swift overview of the last two centuries of Christian theology and Western culture." --Peter Steinfels, The New York Times

"Rosenthal's range is ambitious.... [Her] arguments are convincing, her examples compelling and her knowledge of contemporary poets impressive. Her clear prose style and her avoidance of the distancing parlance of current literary theory make this a valuable study not only for the scholar of literature but for the general reader who would like to see the old familiars in a fresh context and, in the process, be introduced to new and provocative images of Jesus."--Christian Century

"As I read the book, I rejoiced, I bounced in my steps, I flung out hosannas.... With a keen sense of each poet's intellectual and theological context, Rosenthal not only probes the religious imagination but also studies--from obviously fresh sources--the history of theology and the history of belief.... The Poets' Jesus is brilliant in taking two limited areas--poetry and the figure of Jesus--and turning their intersection into a grand survey of intellectual history and the history of belief.... The subtitle is apt; for reading, for thinking, even for meditating, The Poets' Jesus is a millennial book."--Joseph J. Feeney, America

"[The Poets' Jesus] engagingly proceeds more like a Cook's tour than an academic inquiry. Rosenthal has many of the qualities that one wants in a tour guide: she is... well informed...; she is articulate; and she loves her subject.... [In] the figure of Jesus in mid and late twentieth-century world poetry...especially, she is an engaging, stimulating guide."--Christianity and Literature

About the Author

Peggy Rosenthal has taught courses on poetry and spirituality at St. Bernards Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology and at Wheaton College. Her previous books include Words and Values and Divine Inspiration.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1ST edition (May 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195131142
• ISBN-13: 978-0195131147
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #473,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Down on My Knees...Deflated, February 4, 2002

By 

Bonnie B. (Taunton, RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poets' Jesus: Representations at the End of a Millennium (Hardcover)

I have a strong interest in meditative poetry and assumed that this book would provide some profound commentary to enlighten me further in my readings and re-readings. No such luck. I found the author to be arbitrary in her selections, one-dimensional in her interpretations, and--what makes both of those qualities even worse--she has the kind of nagging insistence of a know-it-all schoolmarm. Her directive tone is so domineering that she almost has to be insincere at the core. One does hope to open up to another reader's suggestions about a text, but this author has the effect of making me want to slam my doors and shutter my windows. (Perhaps her relentless misreading of Blake encouraged me to invoke those images. Actually, I just closed the book!) I suppose I more than most don't like being preached at, but even so, most readers would agree, I think, that Rosenthal's sermonizing is a ministry to avoid.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Quack, quack!!, September 24, 2001

By 

Michael Cedric (Leeds, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poets' Jesus: Representations at the End of a Millennium (Hardcover)

Something smells fishy here. I too read this featherweight bit of quasi-scholarship and can hear the author in my mind's ear, only what I hear is alternately shrill and smarmy. There is a self-satisfied and sanctimonious tone to this text, and given its narrowness of content and limited insight, the tone is most peculiar. I originally picked up the book with the notion that it was a parody. (Stupid of me not to notice the publisher!) I can only say, I wish it had been a parody. But perhaps the good doctor's review of it is the parody I was looking for.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peggy Rosenthal's "The Poets" Jesus", October 27, 2000

By 

Dr Kenneth Zierler (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poets' Jesus: Representations at the End of a Millennium (Hardcover)

Peggy Rosenthal's "The Poets' Jesus" should be a Pulitzer nominee. This is an extraordinary work of scholarship by a gifted writer whose love of and joy in poetry is both cerebral and visceral. Rosenthal has read carefully,thoughtfully and sympathetically the poetry about Jesus from biblical times to the present, by poets from every continent, and shown how images of Jesus have changed with time and place, from prophet to divine to romantic hero to epitome of morality, and always an inspiration to poetic imagination. Rosenthal's prose is itself sheer poetry, carefully honed, full of imagery, punctuated with sly wit. This is not only an assessment, a penetrating analysis of the poetry, but a tapestry of brief biographies to fit each poet into her or his time, insights into those influences that framed the poets' views of Jesus. The jacket tells us that Rosenthal "offers courses and retreats on poetry and spitituality." I can visualize her and hear her in my mind as I read tthis book; every now and then she interpolates direct comments to the reader that make us feel we are sitting in on one of the retreats with a good-humored teacher who communicates to us her love of language, poetry, the miracle of the hum,an mind, and a saving spirituality. I have read passages again and again.,