Erotic Element in George Herbert’s Sacramental Poetics

Abstract

This research paper aims at attempting to contextualisation the ambivalent erotic elements in George Herbert’s Poetry within a theological account of the problem of the language-one consistent with exegetical writings of St. Augustine. It is this that, at the heart of the argument, is a hermeneutics of Faith that links the corporeality of human language to a theology of the human body as a sacrament. Reformative theology had positively identified God’s redemptive purposes in human corporeality; for God had created the body in His image, assumed and suffered it through His son, Jesus Christ, and now dwells in it in the form of the Holy Spirit. It can be seen that drawn on the literal meaning of the book of Genesis and the Song of Songs in the Holy Bible; Incarnation Theology possibly asserted an early Eros that redeemed by Grace. It is true that it is not purging, nevertheless the eradicable presence of the guilt that marks a reaction to the text purely. Incapable of redemption prelapsarian sexuality without feelings of shame, the language embodies a tainted consciousness that can merely be transcended by the Grace of Divine revelation.