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The Utah English Journal

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Front Matter

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

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Daniella Kostroun And Lisa Vollendorf, Editors Women, Religion, And The Atlantic World (1600-1800): Book Review, Robin Runia

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

This recent collection of essays promises to transcend the Old vs. New World, Catholic vs. Protestant, and European vs. indigenous dichotomies that have dominated the emerging field of Atlantic studies. Edited by Daniella Kostroun and Lisa Vollendorf and drawing from a colloquium sponsored by UCLA's Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Women, Religion, and the Atlantic World (1600-1800)explores how religion and spirituality shaped local politics, economics, gender, and race in Europe, the Caribbean, and North and South America. The alternative directions described and modeled in the volume all assume a women's and …

Jason E. Vickers Wesley: A Guide For The Perplexed: Book Review, Richard P. Heitzenrater

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Attempts to analyze John Wesley seriously will sooner or later (probably sooner) result in growing perplexity in the minds of the analysts. There are two main reasons for their consternation. First, difficulties naturally arise from trying to understand a person who was a major national figure during much of his life over two centuries ago. Wesley's was a long life marked by growth, development, change, arguments against opponents from all sides (in different ways at different times and places), and his status as legend in his own day-a reputation that was, in part, of his own doing. Second, the variety …

Patrick Muller: Latitudinarianism And Didacticism In Eighteenth~ Century Literature: Moral Theology In Fielding, Sterne, And Goldsmith: Book Review, Christopher J. Fauske

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Latitudinarianism is one of those terms modern authors use when discussing disputes within the eighteenth-century Church of England, often without providing a definition of the term itself. Liberal and conservative, Whig and Tory, are unhelpful in identifying a person's place on a religious spectrum that was not necessarily political. Orthodoxy and heterodoxy are germane only when considering debates that crossed denominational lines-or, at the very least, threatened to cause schism. So scholars often use the term "latitudinarian" by default.

Anti~Catholicism And The Gothic Imaginary: The Historical And Literary Contexts, Diane Long Hoeveler

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

General historical consensus (long in the grip of Whig assumptions) has frequently proclaimed that religion during the Enlightenment period was no longer the highly contentious issue that it had been since the reformation in England. By the mid-eighteenth century, the long siege of fighting and dying over religious beliefs was, in fact, believed to be safely in the past as an elite class and an enlightened bourgeoisie embraced the brave new world of rationalism. This upper crust relegated religious disputes to a much earlier European culture that had been prone to such primitive, superstitious, and irrational behaviors and beliefs. The …

Joris Van Eijnatten: Preaching, Sermon, And Cultural Change In The Long Eighteenth Century: Book Review, Anna Battigelli

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

For decades, the eighteenth-century sermon has fallen into scholarly neglect, despite its role as the foremost performance of public self-definition. The sermon provides insight into the experience of daily life, evolving national self-definitions, and changing cultural trends. Indeed, it is difficult to absorb the complexity and paradoxes of the period known as the Enlightenment apart from the kinds of sermons it produced. The essays in this volume focus on the eighteenth century and cover all of Europe, casting some needed light on the sermon's theological foundations, its transformation throughout the course of the eighteenth century, its content, and, most interesting, …

Wherein Lies Virtue? Secular Matters And Godly Matters In The Works Of Sarah Fielding, Mary Ann Rooks

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Like many writers of the eighteenth century, Sarah Fielding frequently proclaims that the function of her narratives, and of fiction in general, is to inculcate virtue through entertaining storytelling; in her novels she forthrightly intends, as she says in the introduction to The Cry, to "entertain and instruct:' In her prefatory and other critical materials, she tends to draw from an arsenal of commonly referenced classical poets and early modern philosophers, essayists, and literary masters to illustrate and defend her moral purpose. Indeed, one might be led to believe, based solely on reading the ancillary, nonfiction expressions surrounding Fielding's …

Robert D. Cornwall And William Gibson, Editors: Religion, Politics, And Dissent, 1660-1832: Essays In Honour Of James E. Bradley: Book Review, Dustin D. Stewart

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

I n reviewing a Festschrift, one shouldn't lose sight of the volume and focus overmuch on the work of its dedicatee. The success of a party is the responsibility of the hosts rather than the guest of honor. Yet for a certain kind of honoree one may well expect a certain kind of party, so the relationship between the honored work and the honoring work demands attention. The editors of Religion, Politics and Dissentbegin their book by depicting James E. Bradley, whose sixty-fifth birthday occasioned the collection, as an opponent of what they call "the dominant historical position" …

Full Issue

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

No abstract provided.

Kathryn Duncan, Editor Religion In The Age Of Reason: A Transatlantic Study Of The Long Eighteenth Century: Book Review, David B. Paxman

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

When asked what would follow race, class, and gender as the new "center of intellectual energy in the academy:' Stanley Fish answered, "religion" (ix). Kathryn Duncan's collection of twelve essays in Religion in the Age of Reason: A Transatlantic Study of the Long Eighteenth Century turns our attention in that direction and, in so doing, demonstrates why religion merits greater attention. Six of the twelve essays have appeared in an issue of AMS's Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics, volume 4, edited by Duncan.

Informal And Shared: Writing To Create Community, Deborah Dean, Adrienne Warren

Faculty Publications

The authors describe informal writing assignments that have helped their students develop communal bonds with their classmates and learn more about writing well.

Beautifully Damned: Imagination, Revelation, And Exile In Coleridge's "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" And Byron's Cain: A Mystery, Matt Slykhuis

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Abrief survey of the eighteenth-century debates regarding the compatibility of reason and religion reveals the development of two powerful-and polarized-theological trends. The first is what I refer to as the "de-supernaturalization" of Christianity. This movement was evinced among rationalists who desired to remain connected to England's religious past and to retain the unifying influence of their society's most vital "myth" (i.e., Christianity) but who also felt a strong impetus to rid the faith of its "irrational" supernatural elements (e.g., belief in miracles, the soul, and the inspiration of Scripture). The second trend, what I call "re-supernaturalization;' occurred later in the …

Book Review: Pregnant Pause, Tanei Henry

The Utah English Journal

Before Pregnant Pause, I’d never read a book by Han Nolan; and after Pregnant Pause, I can’t wait to read another. While many other YA novels deal with teen pregnancy and parent/teen communication issues, none of the others have Eleanor Crowe dealing with them. Eleanor Crowe is a strong female protagonist, not the kind who deals with bows or elves or vampires, but the kind who deals with real issues that real teenagers are dealing with right now. Though fictional, Han Nolan has created completely believable characters that have to make decisions that many teenagers might also have to make …

Book Review: Learning To Write For Readers: Using Brain-Based Strategies, Joseph Wiederhold

The Utah English Journal

Steak and potatoes packaged as a light dinner salad. Learning to Write for Readers succeeds where other brain-based learning books fail, remaining accessible without sacrificing substance. When other brain-based education books become muddled with scientific jargon mired in convoluted explanations that do not have direct transfer to the classroom, Crow’s work remains pragmatic, rooted in what will benefit student learning today, and after they leave our classrooms.

Why I Teach, Jennifer Dunn

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Jeffrey D. Burson The Rise And Fall Of Theological Enlightenment: Book Review, Kevin L. Cope

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

A peculiar artifact of many decades of materialist historical study is the reinforcement of a highly imaginary, cinematic envisioning of the French eighteenth century. Eager to debunk, demythologize, or otherwise demote anything even remotely religious, historians relish pictures of the French Enlightenment and French Revolution worthy of a Cecil B. DeMille or a D. W Griffith. In the rendering of continental Enlightenment now favored among fashion-forward academic professionals, the poor, the intellectual, the oppressed, and the angry increase in number and fervor while the overfed monks, the ermine-draped clerics, and the impudent aristocrats gobble up every last resource. Then, in …

Diesen Kufl Der Ganzen Welt!: Locating German Enlightenment Through The Idea Of Tolerance, Paul E. Kerry

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Where does one find the German Enlightenment? General surveys and otherwise highly serviceable scholarly readers on the Enlightenment tend to neglect it. A recent book on the German Enlightenment by T. J. Reed observes that for many outside Germany, including scholars, the connection Aufklarung und deutsch (Enlightenment and German) is almost paradoxical. Why should this be so? One explanation is that the German Enlightenment is overshadowed by the French Enlightenment. A second explanation is that late-nineteenth-century Germany is associated with a turn away from Enlightenment ideas, in part a countervailing reaction to the terror of the Napoleonic Wars and French …

The Enlightenment Tradition Of Hume And Smith In Austen: Windows To Understanding, Nicole Coonradt

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

In his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Adam Smith notes the importance of "little department[s]"-those smaller circles of social contact: "By Nature the events which immediately affect that little department in which we ourselves have some little management and directions, which immediately affect ourselves, our friends, our country, are the events which interest us the most, and which chiefly excite our desires and aversions, our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows:' Alasdair MacIntyre would agree with this idea of one's sphere of influence, especially in the works of Jane Austen. Clearly, this concern with self, others, and country might …

Religion, Evolution, And Sensibility: Vico And Hume On The History Of Religion, Horace L. Fairlamb

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Whereas Eastern religions are typically defined by their practices, Western religions are identified by their theological histories, beginning with the covenant between God and Abraham. These theological histories chart a cultural progress marked by divine intrusions or revelations. In contrast, modern secular histories suggest that nature, humanity, and knowledge are progressing without the need for supernatural intervention. Moreover, while traditional religions typically claimed that ultimate truth had already been revealed, Enlightenment progressivism holds that truth is not yet absolutely known, that knowledge is still evolving, and that further progress in truth depends only on natural reason. With the coming of …

P. J. Marshall: The British Discovery Of Hinduism In The Eighteenth Century: Book Review, Michael Austin

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

The format of this reissued book deserves some commentary. Originally published in 1970, these reprints of primary texts from the second half of the eighteenth century are now available in a digitally printed version. This publication format takes advantage of new digital printing technologies that can produce attractive, bound volumes of older books-often indistinguishable from the original edition-in print runs as small as a single copy. This publication medium is an exciting innovation for scholars, ultimately eliminating out-of-print books by making any book available, on demand, to anyone who wants to purchase it.

Facing The Future With The Shield Of Aeneas: Virgil And The Testing Of Dryden's Catholic Faith In The 1690s, John J. Burke Jr.

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

The shield of Aeneas has always had a sense of mystery about it. His shield, like that of Achilles in the Iliad, is not merely a physical object designed to protect him from crippling wounds or death while in battle; oddly, it is also a work of art. Moreover, it is a work of art that is supernatural in origin, fashioned in this instance by the Roman god Vulcan and presented to the Trojan exile Aeneas by his goddess mother, Venus, in book 8 of Virgil's Aeneid. There have been countless discussions of what we are to make …

Reclaiming Literacy Classroom Through Critical Dialogue, Bob Fecho, Dawan Coombs, Sean Mcauley

Faculty Publications

Tim (all student names are pseudonyms), a young English teacher, took a position in a corporately owned charter school. Despite misgivings—“Just not sure privatization and choice are the saviors of public education”—Tim needed a job and accepted what was offered.

Typically for Tim, he threw himself into his teaching, getting additionally involved in class sponsorship and student government. As an offshoot of these activities, Tim asked his sophomore classes to write about, and then discuss, the seeming lack of school spirit and what they could do about it:

Using Ricoeur’S Mimetic Process To Examine The Identities Of Struggling Adolescent Readers, Dawan Coombs

Faculty Publications

Building on the principles of philosophical hermeneutics, Ricoeur (1984) used the concept of narrative to explain how individuals interpret their experiences and make sense of seemingly disconnected elements of life by turning them into the stories. Narrative identities represent the coming together of the stories individuals tell, as well as those told about them by collectivities and by others (Bruner, 1986; Kearney, 2002). These ideas prove particularly relevant to literacy studies because identity influences how individuals make sense of their experiences, including their interactions with texts (McCarthey & Moje, 2000). Using the methodological framework of philosophical hermeneutics, this article discusses …

Rhetorical Invention In Public Speaking Textbooks And Classrooms, Richard Benjamin Crosby

Faculty Publications

This essay examines how three of the most popular public speaking textbooks address rhetorical invention. The essay argues that textbooks minimize the discursive space shared by speakers and audiences in public speaking classrooms. As a consequence, topic and argument invention is framed largely as an internal affair that occurs prior to the speaker’s interaction with the audience. The essay concludes with recommendations for teaching invention by reframing the public speaking classroom as a protopublic space.

Conrad, "The Times", And Some Explorers, Aaron Eastley

Faculty Publications

Even in a day when historicism in literary studies is ubiquitous, the pitch and duration of historicist fervor that has surrounded Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is extraordinary. Since its original publication over a century ago, the text has flourished amid a swarm of meta-textual narratives variously critical, political, philosophical, and historical. As Benita Parry attests, Heart of Darkness has enjoyed a “singular afterlife” (41), one that Allan Simmons aptly captures in the metaphor of “a pendulum swinging back and forth between aesthetics and history” (104). First appearing serially as “The Heart of Darkness” in three monthly installments of Blackwood’s Edinburgh …

What You Should Know (And Probably Don’T) About Teaching Ells, Nicole Sanchez

The Utah English Journal

As an intern teacher at a middle school in Payson, I struggled on a daily basis to juggle all the balls a teacher keeps in the air: trying to come up with engaging lesson plans, differentiated instruction, classroom management, connecting with parents, and so on. In January, just as I was finally getting to a point where I felt somewhat confident, Ana arrived. She had just moved to Utah from Mexico and was a brand new English Language Learner (ELL). Her vocabulary consisted entirely of “hi” and “good.” I was baffled as to what I could do. How could I …

First Psalm: Poems And Paintings, Ashley Mae Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

This collection of poems and paintings seeks to find the places where visual and written communication intersects, and the places where those two media diverge. The collection consists of poems and paintings juxtaposed, as if in conversation with one another throughout the pages. The collection treats each painting and poem as a separate attempt at prayer. As a reader turns the pages, similar questions are asked again and again, but in different settings and with different outcomes. This collection focuses on finding reconciliation between the oral culture of storytelling and the written culture of ideas, all within the context of …

The Unsuccessful Harvesting Of Figs From Thistles And Other Failures Of Idealized Masculinity In Ella D'Arcy's The Bishop's Dilemma, Elizabeth Watson Christianson

Theses and Dissertations

Although confusion about the genre of New Woman Ella D'Arcy's only novella has resulted in a lack of scholarship, The Bishop's Dilemma can now be read as a social commentary that reaches beyond the New Woman subversion of the Victorian marriage plot, broadening the gender discussion at the fin-de-siècle. In this essay, I examine how D'Arcy uses Catholicism as a vehicle to create a unique space in the Catholic ritual of the confession that gives her reader privileged access to Victorian manhood. I argue that by placing her examination of masculinity in the context of the Catholic priesthood, D'Arcy renders …

The Realm Of The Real: Imitation And Authenticity In Edith Wharton's The Custom Of The Country, Brittany Brie Atkinson

Theses and Dissertations

Edith Wharton's 1913 novel The Custom of the Country reveals a national concern with defining and preserving authenticity in social and cultural life. A study of the novel through the lens of scholarship concerning the modernist obsession with "the real thing," including such seminal texts as Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and Lionel Trilling's Sincerity and Authenticity, opens up a broad discussion of authenticity and imitation as defined by Wharton's characters. This paper challenges the traditional interpretations of the much-abused term. First, I outline a brief history of the study of authenticity …