"United essential harmony" : the Puritan perception of Edward Taylor
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Mary Sue Willis (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Robert Stephens
Abstract: Contrary to much modern opinion, the American Puritans, in the words of Edward Taylor, expected their doctrine to yield "United Essential harmony." This study is an attempt to find the harmony of which Taylor spoke in terms of some of his more prominent metaphors. An exploration into Taylor's figures appears appropriate, since he himself claimed the "Metaphoricall" mode of Scripture as his own "truth Speaking form." The five chief figures to be examined here are called in this study the hygienic, the erotic, the organic, the domestic and the forensic. The first four can be found more definitely in Taylor's Preparatory Meditations and Taylor's occasional poetry, and the last in Taylor's long poem, Gods Determinations. Taylor's "hygienic" figures are an exposition of New England preparationism, which required man to admit his sinful condition in terms of disease and degradation. The purposes of such description, however, were not ultimately to denigrate man but to set forth God's grace as correspondingly great and to show how, by his confession, man could assist the Lord in the preparation of the grounds of his own salvation.
"United essential harmony" : the Puritan perception of Edward Taylor
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Created on 1/1/1979
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 1979
- Subjects
- Taylor, Edward, $d 1642-1729 $x Criticism and interpretation
- Taylor, Edward, $d 1642-1729 $x Characters
- Puritans in literature