This dissertation aimed to examine Herbert’s poems related to the globalization of the church, such as “The British Church”, “Church-Rent and Schismes”, “The sacrifice”, “Providence”, and “The Church-militant”. Through “The British Church” and “Ch ...
This dissertation aimed to examine Herbert’s poems related to the globalization of the church, such as “The British Church”, “Church-Rent and Schismes”, “The sacrifice”, “Providence”, and “The Church-militant”. Through “The British Church” and “Church-Rent and Schismes”, true church was examined and through “The sacrifice”, “Providence” and “The Church-militant”, the evangelization of the World was dealt.
In the first part of this study, 'Christianity as the true church', the poems of “The British Church” and “Church-Rent and Schismes” are dealt, which reflected Herbert's hope that churches, as a base of global evangelization, would become clean and holy temples from sins and useful true churches.
In “The British Church” , Herbert condemned the barbaric Puritans and corrupt Catholics and directed to the true Church from the perspective of "Happy mean (via media)" (Ray 35). He compared the Catholic Church's ceremony to excessively gorgeous woman, who was excessively showy and behaved "lasciviously" like "seductress". Also, he compared the Puritan to untidy and uncivilized primitive woman because the Puritan destroyed the form. Between two extremes, he stressed "the mother of praise and glory" which two extreme women missed. He suggested the Church of England as the best model of protestants of the British Empire which had pleasant way of worship as like the elegant mother wearing "sacred ceremony" clothes to reveal one's own advantage and following the middle way.
In “Church-Rent and Schismes”, he dealt with corruption, fragmentation and conflict of the church because of the invasion of the forces of sins from outside to sacred church. He described the beautifully shining temple as "gorgeous roses" and the sectarian divisions bringing corruption and conflict as a worm "a lot of feet and hair". The speaker indirectly attacked the leadership of the church, suggesting that all sects had the responsibility for the church corruption.
In the second section "Christianity for Evangelization of the World", God's plan and the preaching of the gospel were examined by “The sacrifice”, “Providence”, and “The Church-militant”. “The sacrifice” described the story of Christ who became sacrifice for redemption of the world. In the poem, Christ suffering voluntarily for human redemption and God's love devoting his life were compared with the spiritually blind human's hatred and ignorant human without knowing God's plan to save themselves from sin and spiritual death.
“Providence” dealt with God's providence as the basic laws of the universe and focused on God's divine plan for the evangelization. God governed the universe according to His will, got the praise and glory of those who know his will, and he made the history of salvation. In the “The Church-militant”, there was the story that providence guided the history. The militant moved to a whole district from east to west that was non-Puritan victory, and linked between Europe and West India by the Spanish Empire to eliminate the forces of sin and eschatological movements of the true Church. It recorded about the spouse of Christ throughout the history from Old Testament era, New Law era, and to the end of the world.
The prose and poetry of Herbert in this study were cited from "F. E. Hutchinson (ed.), The Works of George Herbert (London: Oxford UP, 1941)" and after the citation the number of rows and page number with W abbreviation were marked. For Hutchinson's Commentary, the page number was denoted with abbreviation as Huchinson. The books dealt with Puritans, the extremes of Roman Catholic, God's plan, and the evangelization of the world, were referred such as Stanley Stewart's George Herbert〔Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986], Cristina Malcolmson's George Herbert: A Literary Life. 〔London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004〕, and Richard Strier's Love Known: Theology and Experience in George Herbert's Poetry. 〔Chicago: The U of Chicago P, 1983].
So far, most studies have been done in terms of an individual’s private life of faith based on the section of “the Church” of The Temple. This study focused on the poems related to the true church as an advanced base for the world evangelization and “The Church-militant”, and reviewed the world evangelization of the ultimate goal of Christians. This study will be able to identify the point of view of Christian Herbert on globalization without limited to the individual’s life. Therefore, the relationship between “The Church” and “The Church-militant” will be demonstrated. In other words, “The Church-militant” will be highlighted as a finale and conclusion of The Temple, rather than just a separated part from the structure The Temple.