Hello and welcome to the Discourse. John Dryden was the first official poet laureate of England and he was a loyal Tory supporter of the crown. He was active at a time when England was facing religious and political turmoil. The power struggle between Catholics and Protestants was incessantly increasing. King Charles II wished his brother James, Duke of York to succeed him but the strong Protestant fraction was totally against it as James II was a Catholic. John Dryden was a Protestant but he was a supporter of King Charles II. During the same time, the Catholic faction of Britain was also gaining strength. In 1682, ‘Histoire critique due Vieux testament’ by French cleric Father Richard Simon was translated and published in English. This book was a detailed criticism of the textual history of the Bible and argued that, given the compromised nature of much of the Bible, Christians would do better to base their faith on the history and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. The book was meant to undermine the Protestant faction that considered the authority of the Bible over the traditions and rituals of the Catholic Church.
As a response, Dryden wrote Religio Laici; or, A Layman’s Faith which was essentially a literary defense of the Protestant Anglican Church against arguments made by Deists, Catholics, and Dissenting factions against the throne of England. While John Dryden offers strong support to the Anglican Church in Religio Laici, he converted to Catholicism three years after writing this poem. The poem contains 456 lines composed in 23 uneven stanzas. It is a narrative poem written in epic form.
Summary:
Dryden first offers a prose description (a Preamble) of why he is writing this poem. He says that his writing is supported by both officially sanctified concepts of the Church of England and has been approved by a knowledgeable scholar. However, he acknowledges that he has not followed all the notes offered by that scholar as that would have compromised his own personality.
He then discusses his ideas of faith. He discusses the history of Christianity which according to him reveals that the concept of the chosen people is used in so many contexts that it has become invalid as if in God's plan the devil always had a first choice with which he disagrees. Dryden suggests that the one true religion was given to Noah and that each subsection that came after slowly degraded the holy rite, and hence, could not be near the one true faith. He talks about science and the laws of nature and how they all fit into the scheme, even though certain religious and philosophical figures discourage them. He concludes this section by stating that the word of God, as found in the Holy Scripture is the only anchor a human needs.
Dryden then discusses the philosophy of Athanasius, a Bishop of ancient Constantinople famous for his pursuit against heretics within the old Catholic faith. He expresses his disagreement with Athanasius and says that the words of the apostles are the only source of wisdom as these are easy to understand. He concludes his analysis of History and suggests that it is better to have a worldview simply based on the Holy Scriptures and let the unknown be unknown. However, he says that this makes him an enemy of both the Papacy and the religious fanatics (Puritans). He further says that none of these groups troubles his mind because while the fanatics are entrenched in their own battles and the Catholics have no dominion over England, nor they can ever get.
He then shows some favors for the ‘Good Catholics,’ those who consider the English crown as their sovereign and are loyal to it. He asks them to culminate all their loyalties towards Rome. He then criticizes the religious fanatics of the Anglican church and their crimes against civility and humanity. At the end of this introduction to his poem, Dryden suggests that this poem should be taken as an instruction, he believes that a learned person can be led to the truth by means of reason.
The first stanza of the poem stresses the primacy of reason over a man’s life. Dryden says that reason has led men on the right path and has the opportunity to do this for others as well. In the second stanza, Dryden counters the viewpoint of deists who say that they are chosen with the truth and history and provenance suggests to humankind that only good deeds lead to salvation. In the third stanza, Dryden attacks those who try to explain the way of God. He says that the people who try to decipher the will of God are like those philosophers of ancient Greece who didn’t believe in God and tried to rationalize the concept of God. Dryden says that truth and reason are implanted into humankind by the true God and God encompasses all that is. In the fourth stanza, he questions the reader if he can breach this law and do whatever he wants? In the next stanza, Dryden mentions Christ who took birth to take humankind’s sin over him. He again attacks those who believe they know God’s will. The sixth stanza warns people to only listen to the scripture as truth can only be found in it, followed by a plea that rites, tradition, and philosophy do not contain the truth, but only the word of God can give us this.
In the tenth stanza, Dryden counters those who argue that the truth can only be the truth if it is known by everyone. Since Bible remained unknown in the recently discovered Americas during that time, they say Bible cannot be true. Dryden asserts that Providence always finds a way, exemplified in the journey of the Gentiles, who were not forced by any given law. He also contests the notion that good people who did not know the true word would suffer in eternity, as this goes against the basics of the written word. In the thirteenth stanza, Dryden acknowledges the problem of mistranslation and misinterpretation of the holy words of the Bible. In the fourteenth stanza, Dryden mentions the issue of Apocrypha, those religious texts that were kept out of the Bible by Catholic concepts. Dryden states that these holes in the knowledge are filled with ill-placed traditions and bad rites. In the 15th and 16th stanzas, Dryden answers these issues and says that a true, fully realized, and bias-free version of the holy text can be found in the lost original. He further says that this doesn’t mean that all translations are wrong or bad. He mentions that Christ is still the lord and still a man. He then praises the Layman and encourages them to remain true to their heart. He says that Layman has the ability to see what is true and just among all the fancy translation errors in the scripture. The common man should keep these truths he finds to his heart and not let the fancy text bring him off the true path.
In the 19th stanza, Dryden offers a strong critique of Catholic belief and says that the Catholic faith believes to own the whole Christian faith when they only are a part of it. In the 20th stanza, he goes on to explain how Catholic history has corrupted this branch of Christianity. They're keeping the real wisdom, as mentioned before, from the common folk leading to a number of problems. People started to have their own interpretations and believed everything they heard. The good and common thread of love and compassion got lost. Dryden complains that this practice caused a thousand sects per day to rise.
In the last two stanzas, Dryden asserts the main message of the poem and says that the layman or the common man must only have the basic truths of Christianity to hold onto. Every addition given from the outside has to be rejected.
The poem deals with the tussle of true Christianity between the Catholics and Protestants. The poet explains the definition of true belief. The narrator leads the reader towards the explanation that true Christianity is only to be found in the pure interpretation of the original word of God, namely the Bible. Dryden also brings up the debate between believers and nonbelievers and rejects the argument that most people that have lived on this planet would be considered to burn in hell for all eternity because they do not believe in Catholic ways. He says that the Provenance of God's word is true in all times and places, transcending the Christian world and allowing all good people to arrive in heaven. He attacks religious eliticism. He complained against the argument that some religious rites are better than others. The poet says that all forms of worship are flawed to some extent and no one can know which one is the least flawed. That is why such elitist explanations about the one true way to worship God, as proclaimed by Catholics or other denominations are discarded by Dryden.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected to the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
No comments:
Post a Comment