Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to John Clare
- The Cambridge Companion to John Clare
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Clare the Poet
- Part II Clare the Naturalist
- Part III Clare’s Image
- Part IV Influences and Traditions
- 12 Clare and Religion
- 13 John Clare and the British Labouring-Class Tradition
- 14 The Politics of Nature
- 15 Clare’s Health
- 16 Clare among the Poets
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
12 - Clare and Religion
from Part IV - Influences and Traditions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to John Clare
- The Cambridge Companion to John Clare
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Clare the Poet
- Part II Clare the Naturalist
- Part III Clare’s Image
- Part IV Influences and Traditions
- 12 Clare and Religion
- 13 John Clare and the British Labouring-Class Tradition
- 14 The Politics of Nature
- 15 Clare’s Health
- 16 Clare among the Poets
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To Literature
Summary
This chapter explores the relationship between Christianity and ecology in Clare’s poetry, letters, and biblical paraphrases. Critics tend to secularize Clare’s writing and so overlook its biblical, religious, and metaphysical content. The chapter redresses this by assessing Clare’s early Christian faith, his relationship to Wesleyan Methodism and the Ranters, his distrust of organized religion, and his divine ecology as an expression of rural Christianity. Clare looks beyond pantheism and natural religion to identify an interwoven and sacred creation inseparable from the parish. As such, Clare valued Christianity as a ‘religion that teaches us to act justly to speak truth & love mercy’, a social and ecological politics embedded in prayer, mystery, scripture, and faith.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to John Clare , pp. 183 - 195Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024