Synopsis
One of the most tendentious and enduring questions of Swift scholarship concerns his faith. What did Swift believe? Was his career in the Church primarily a means of political and social advancement? Did Swift subscribe to a coherent theology, or were his beliefs simply expedient? How did the turbulent streams of eighteenth-century Anglican and Protestant theologies influence Swift's satiric vision? In the light of recent work on his tenure in the Church of Ireland, this volume presents a timely critical appraisal of Swift's role as a priest vis-a-vis his identity as one of the Enlightenment's premier satirists. The essays in this volume cover four broad categories: (1) Essays that historicize his relationship to the Church of Ireland and to the bruising world of eighteenth-century theological discourse in general. (2) Essays that examine how Swift represents religious figures and controversies in his poetry and prose, including a A Tale of a Tub. (3) Essays that theorize the relationships between religious and literary genres. (4) Essays that articulate the links between Swift's satires and contemporary religious, philosophical, and scientific discourse.