George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety
Title | George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety PDF eBook |
Author | Ceri Sullivan |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 225 |
Release | 2024-04-25 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0198906838 |
Contemporary nudge theory points out that people make good choices over issues where they have had past experience of similar circumstances, where there is reliable, substantial, and relevant information about the situation, and where they will get prompt feedback about the effect of their decision. Yet none of these conditions apply to the most vital choice of action facing early modern Protestants: how can they be saved? In George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety, Ceri Sullivan uses nudge theory to show how practical divinity disregards the doleful conclusions of predestination--that salvation cannot be earned--to supply readers with suggestions on how to prepare to act, regardless of their final destiny. Such texts create cognitive niches to support cheerful, godly thought and action, in a way which is far from being despairing or compulsive. Their nudges were repeatedly put into practice by Herbert's friends, the Ferrars, who tried to form an ideal religious community at Little Gidding. These prescriptions and examples illustrate how George Herbert's The Temple (1633) is a compendium of the techniques of choice architecture. Herbert's poems are full of the humour emerging from a life of faith which is willing to guard high ideals by low cunning, stooping to use the least little things to change a self. George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety initially calls on theories of the extended mind to ask what sort of minor physical and social structures scaffold decisions, then examines a selection of nudges used by Herbert: contracts with the self, building a mind, cleaning a heart, conversing with God, making to-do lists, and working on working well.
The Church and the Puritans, 1570-1660
Title | The Church and the Puritans, 1570-1660 PDF eBook |
Author | Henry Offley Wakeman |
Publisher | |
Pages | 272 |
Release | 1902 |
Genre | England |
ISBN |
The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors: 680-1638
Title | The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors: 680-1638 PDF eBook |
Author | Charles Wells Moulton |
Publisher | |
Pages | 812 |
Release | 1901 |
Genre | American literature |
ISBN |
The British Millennial Harbinger
Title | The British Millennial Harbinger PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 876 |
Release | 1863 |
Genre | Churches of Christ |
ISBN |
The International Library of Famous Literature
Title | The International Library of Famous Literature PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 556 |
Release | 1898 |
Genre | Literature |
ISBN |
The International Library of Famous Literature
Title | The International Library of Famous Literature PDF eBook |
Author | Richard Garnett |
Publisher | |
Pages | 578 |
Release | 1900 |
Genre | Literature |
ISBN |
The Bibliophile Library of Literature, Art and Rare Manuscripts
Title | The Bibliophile Library of Literature, Art and Rare Manuscripts PDF eBook |
Author | Forrest Morgan |
Publisher | |
Pages | 454 |
Release | 1904 |
Genre | Biography |
ISBN |