Shakespeare and the Grace of Words

Valentin Gerlier is a Scholar, musician and lecturer in Theology, Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Chester, Research Associate at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge, and tutor at the Temenos Academy. He has acted in and directed numerous Shakespeare plays, and teaches Shakespeare at the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge.

PART I: APPROACH

1 - Shakespeare, Language and Religion: Problems and Possibilities

Introduction: Shakespeare, Language and Religion

Skepticism and Cultural Poetics: Language as Power

The ‘Turn to Religion’ and its Ambiguities

Transition: Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Philosophy of Language and Rowan Williams’ Metaphysics

Some Theological Readings of Shakespeare

Grace, Gift and Ethics in The Winter’s Tale: John Milbank

Nature and Forgiveness in King Lear: John Hughes

Language, Acknowledgment and Forgiveness in the Late Plays: Sarah Beckwith

Shakespeare, Cusa and Doxology: Johannes Hoff and Peter Hampson

‘Theology and Literature’: Issues and Insights

Literature as Theology?.

Theology as Literature?

2 – ‘A Wide and Universal Theatre’: Shakespeare, Cusa and Doxology

Introduction

Cusa, Theology and Language: Context and Background

The Limits of Language and the Crafting of Names

Praise, Possest and Poetics

Calling and Responding: The Voices of the Soliloquy

The Liturgical and the ‘Middle-Voice’

Response as Responsibility: The Hospitality of Words

Conclusion

PART TWO: READINGS

3 – The Unsaying of the World: King Lear

Introduction

Spatialisation versus Symbolic Speech

‘Nothing in the Middle’: Weightless Words, Ponderous Silences

‘Nature’, or Creativity versus Curses

Swearing and Jesting in Vain

The Voice of the Skeleton Man

Nakedness in Garments, or Fiction versus Justice

Words Without a Cause

4 – Words of Childlike Grace: The Winter’s Tale

Introduction

Turning the World to Stone

The Rescue of Words: Fools, Counsellors and Oracles

Interlude: From Time to Tale

The Art of Storytelling: Cutpurses, Courtiers and Clowns

The Queen of the Flowers, or the Voice of Nature

The Grace of Words and the Ground of Language