Description
Book SynopsisThe Book of God manages to be at once ambitious, deliberate, and nuanced in its interconnecting conceptions of philosophy and literary criticism.-Orrin Wang, University of Maryland
Trade Review"An erudite, refreshing study of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century concept of intentional design that rethinks the equation of romanticism, modernity, and secularization underwriting romantic studies for the last fifty years.
The Book of God manages to be at once ambitious, deliberate, and nuanced in its interconnecting conceptions of philosophy and literary criticism." * Orrin Wang, University of Maryland *
"The claim that God's existence can be inferred from the order and intricacy of the world has an ancient lineage.
The Book of God explores the literary, philosophical, and theological inflection of this avowal in the context of encroaching secularism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. . . . It is a timely work, for the historical survey bears also on contemporary discussion. Some recent commentators have made much of the alleged incompatibly between science and religion. Colin Jager's sensitivity to the complexity of 'secularization' serves to subvert this binary thinking." *
Times Literary Supplement *
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction. Nature is the Book of God
Chapter 1. The Argument Against Design from Deism to Blake
Chapter Two. Arbitrary Acts of Mind: Natural Theology in Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Chapter Three. Theory, Practice, and Anna Barbauld
Chapter Four. Natural Designs: William Paley, Immanuel Kant, and the Power of Analogy
Chapter Five. Mansfield Park and the End of Natural Theology
Chapter Six. Wordsworth: The Shape of Analogy
Chapter Seven. Reading With a Worthy Eye: Secularization and Evil
Chapter Eight. Religion Three Ways
Afterword. Intelligent Design and Religious Ignoramuses; or, the Difference between Theory and Literature
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
