Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 08:00:15 -0500
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: age of faith
From: Patrick Nugent <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
How about another unsubstantiated opinion on this topic? When I took
medieval historiography, there was some discussion of nineteenth-century
English and French historiography of the middle ages; the French in
particular lined up along lines of whether the middle ages caused the
horrors from which the glorious French Revolution liberated the world, or
whether it was the great age of harmony between faith and reason, destroyed
finally by the anarchic terrors of the French revolution. I recall mention
being made of the phrase "age of faith" by whoever did the presentation on
19th cent. French historiography, but my files don't contain notes or
biblio from that presentation.
There has been much interest, of late, in 19th century "medievalism," as
it's being called, and I suspect that some of that literature might be of
help here. Unfortunately, out where I am we barely have indoor plumbing,
much less hot new books on medievalism. But maybe somebody with a
better-equipped library might be able to chase some of this down?
My vote, then, is for the nineteenth century.
Patrick Nugent
When I sent in my earlier off the cuff thought about Matthew Arnold
and Dover Beach, I was wrong: his phrase was 'Sea of faith' (the full
verse runs:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round Earth's shore,
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath,
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world').
But I think it is obvious that the phrase at the back of Arnold's
mind is 'Age of Faith', and he has shifted it into a sea metaphor for
the purposes of his poem. This shows that worries about the slipping
away of the Age of Faith were active in the 1850s, whereas perhaps
the people using the phrase c.1800 actually thought that the passing
of what they saw as the Age of Faith was a Good Thing.
Julia Barrow
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Patrick J. Nugent
Department of Religion
Earlham College
Richmond, Indiana 47374 USA
(765) 983-1413
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