Minor Prophecy: Walt Whitman's New American ReligionIndiana University Press, 1989 - 240 pages Many of Walt Whitman's earliest readers hailed him as a religious prophet. For them, Leaves of Grass was more than literary art; it was sacred scripture. Recent scholarship has, however, dismissed those early enthusiasts as naive, if not crazy. David Kuebrich's new study of Whitman corrects that academic oversight by giving the early Whitmanites their due as the critics who most clearly perceived the nature and purpose of the poet's labors—to begin a new religion. Kuebrich's thorough, intelligent study, based squarely on textual evidence, offers a revisionist interpretation of America's great poet, returning religious vision and spirituality to the center of Whitman studies. |
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Page 19
... ideas which defines the God - human - world relationship . Briefly outlined , it asserts : there is a God who transcends this world and yet is also immanent in it ; nature and history are ultimately significant for their spiritual ...
... ideas which defines the God - human - world relationship . Briefly outlined , it asserts : there is a God who transcends this world and yet is also immanent in it ; nature and history are ultimately significant for their spiritual ...
Page 30
... ideas . For this reason it seems appro- priate to call his theory of progress a post - Christian millennialism . In this chapter I discuss Whitman's millennialism in relation to antebellum millennialism and its corollary doctrines of ...
... ideas . For this reason it seems appro- priate to call his theory of progress a post - Christian millennialism . In this chapter I discuss Whitman's millennialism in relation to antebellum millennialism and its corollary doctrines of ...
Page 206
... ideas and language in the Leaves ( Walt Whitman and the Body Beautiful , pp . 109–33 ) , but it seems that Whitman avoided drawing upon ideas and minutiae specific to phrenology , so that even when it proved to be a pseudoscience , the ...
... ideas and language in the Leaves ( Walt Whitman and the Body Beautiful , pp . 109–33 ) , but it seems that Whitman avoided drawing upon ideas and minutiae specific to phrenology , so that even when it proved to be a pseudoscience , the ...
Contents
Reconsidering Whitmans Intention | 1 |
A New Religion | 12 |
Interpreting Historys Meaning | 27 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
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afterlife American antebellum argued asserts belief body Brooklyn Daily Eagle Calamus Christian mysticism church Civil conceived consciousness cosmology Cradle creation critics culture democracy Democratic depicts describes discussion divine earlier earth edition Emerson Emory Holloway ence Essays evolutionary existence faith freedom Gay Wilson Allen God's homosexual human human sexuality Ibid ideas immanent immortality interpretation Kuebrich later Leaves of Grass Lilacs literature male manly love millennial millennialist millennium Miller modern moral nation natural fact night passage perfect perfectionism phrenology poem's poems poet poet's poetic political present Press proclaim progress prophet race Ralph Waldo Emerson readers realization reform religion religious cosmology religious democracy religious experience religious symbols religious vision sense sexual society Song soul soul's spiritual development stars suggests theme theory thought tion traditional transcendent understanding Union Univ universe Walt Whitman Whit Whitman believed Whitman's poetry women world view York