Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial note
- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
- 1 Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1724), Chapters I, IV, V, VIII (less paragraph 4), IX, X (extracted), XI
- 2 Discourses on the Use and Intent of Prophecy (1726), Discourses II and III
- 3 Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1753, translated from Latin into English by Richard Gregory in 1787), Lectures IV (extracted), V (less the first and last paragraphs), XIV, XVII (less the first two paragraphs and the second half of the lecture, viz. pp. 377–387 of the 1787 edition), XIX
- 4 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), ‘A Memorable Fancy’
- 5 Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit (1825), Letters V, VI, VII
- 6 On the Right Interpretation and Understanding of the Scriptures (1829) (ending at page xl of the 1874 edition)
- 7 On the Interpretation of Scripture from Essays and Reviews (1860), Section 3
- 8 Literature and Dogma (1873), Chapters IV–VI
- Notes
- Select booklist
5 - Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit (1825), Letters V, VI, VII
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial note
- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
- 1 Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1724), Chapters I, IV, V, VIII (less paragraph 4), IX, X (extracted), XI
- 2 Discourses on the Use and Intent of Prophecy (1726), Discourses II and III
- 3 Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1753, translated from Latin into English by Richard Gregory in 1787), Lectures IV (extracted), V (less the first and last paragraphs), XIV, XVII (less the first two paragraphs and the second half of the lecture, viz. pp. 377–387 of the 1787 edition), XIX
- 4 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), ‘A Memorable Fancy’
- 5 Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit (1825), Letters V, VI, VII
- 6 On the Right Interpretation and Understanding of the Scriptures (1829) (ending at page xl of the 1874 edition)
- 7 On the Interpretation of Scripture from Essays and Reviews (1860), Section 3
- 8 Literature and Dogma (1873), Chapters IV–VI
- Notes
- Select booklist
Summary
Confessions is a text from Coleridge's later life. After twenty years of turbulence, he was living at Highgate, to the north of London, in the house of the surgeon, James Gillman. Surrounded by his books and with his opium addiction kept within bounds, he was a venerable figure who read, wrote, annotated and conversed – all widely and wonderfully. He hoped that his immense stores of learning and experience – not least experience – could be unified in the frame of Christian theism. Christianity, as no modern writer knew more vividly and richly than Coleridge, is a universal religion. Therefore its truth, in which he believed more ardently than ever before, could only be realised on this big scale. And its truth meant that such a project must be possible. His unequalled knowledge of the things that had to be unified – philosophy, theology, history, poetry, science, politics – equipped him to do it. It was never written, unless the unpublished scientific treatise called (not by him) ‘opus maximum’ is it or its prototype. But plentiful hors d'oeuvres survive, and Confessions is the best of them. The Statesman's Manual peters out, and Aids to Reflection, though so influential and popular in the nineteenth century, seems to modern readers to go on and on. In Confessions he hit on the right genre. Its short letters are near to his genius as a talker. They contain urgent passion and sustain practical concern.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Critics of the Bible, 1724–1873 , pp. 105 - 121Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989