Description

This is a detailed and innovative study of the use by the poet Shelley, conventionally regarded as an atheist, of ideas and imagery from the Scriptures in expressing his world view. Assessing Shelley's poetic theory and practice in relation to the Gnostic heresies of the early church period and the Enlightenment critiques of Scripture, the book shows the poet's method of biblical interpretation to be heterodox and revisionist. Shelley and Scripture draws on a deep knowledge of the Bible, and of the various currents in the history of biblical exegesis and Christian typology, to present a timely re-evaluation of the influence on Shelley's poetry of the language and traditions of Christianity.