More widely studied and more frequently performed than ever before, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi is here presented in an accessible and thoroughly up-to-date edition. Based on the Revels Plays text, the notes have been augmented to cast further light both on Webster's amazing dialogue and on the stage action. An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the context of pre-Civil War England and gives a revealing view of its imagery and dramatic action. From its well-documented early performances to the two productions seen in the West End of London in the 1995-96 season, a stage history gives an account of the play in performance. Students, actors, directors and theatre-goers will all find here a reappraisal of Webster's artistry in the greatest age of English theatre, which highlights why it has lived on stage with renewed force in the last decades of the twentieth century.

This volume offers John Webster's two great Jacobean tragedies, The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, together with his brilliant tragicomedy, The Devil's Law-Case, and the comedy written with William Rowley, A Cure for a Cuckold. Webster is a radically and creatively experimental dramatist. His tragedies deploy shifting dramatic perspectives which counteract and challenge conventional moral judgements, while the predominantly gentler tone of his comedies and tragicomedies responds inventively to contemporary changes in dramatic taste and fashion. All four plays display the provocative intelligence of a profoundly original playwright. Under the General Editorship of Michael Cordner of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. In addition, there is detailed annotation, a glossary, and a critical introduction which traces Webster's artistic development, defends him against charges of overindulgence in violence, and explores his sophisticated staging and scenic forms.

Here, Webster presents a trinitarian theology of holiness, which is aimed at a wide range of audiences, including ordinands, students of theology and interested laypeople. According to this account, God's holiness is known not in his simple transcendence but in his gracious and free relationship to his creatures. That holiness finds an echo in the holiness of the Christian community, especially in worship and witness, and in the life of the individual disciple. Integrating biblical, dogmatic and practical theology, the book - which is based on the Day-Higginbotham lectures delivered in the University of Toronto in 2002 - offers a succinct account of a central theme in Christian teaching and practice.

This introduction locates Webster's plays within the context of the culture from which they sprang. Examining the uncertain political, religious, and economic climate of Jacobean London, the book offers a guide to one of the most distinctive, yet most elu

An overview and analysis of John Webster’s seminal contributions to Christian theology At the time of his death, John Webster was widely hailed as one of the leading Christian theologians in the world. Over the course of three decades, he produced groundbreaking studies on the theologies of Eberhard Jüngel and Karl Barth and, especially since the turn of the millennium, numerous books and essays on various themes in Christian dogmatics. He then intended to write an encyclopedic systematic theology—a project he was unable to complete. No substitute is possible for that lost opus, but the contributors offer this volume as an homage to Webster and an aid to those who want to learn from him. A Companion to the Theology of John Webster begins with an introductory section on Webster’s theological development, then continues into an extensive overview of Webster’s contributions to contemporary discussions of particular doctrines. An epilogue suggests how Webster’s theology might have unfolded had he lived longer and imagines the continuing influence of his work on the enterprise of Christian dogmatics. Readers hoping to understand the legacy of this great theologian, and also those eager for fresh insights into the present state and future trajectories of contemporary Protestantism, will find much to offer here.