Reformation Spirituality: The Religion of George Herbert (review)

BOOK REVIEWS37 Gene Edward Veith, Jr., Reformation Spirituality: The Religion of George Herbert. Cranbury, New Jersey: Bucknell/Associated University Presses, 1985. 250 pp. $34.50. by John H. Ottenhoff Calvinism, according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is "a lamb in wolf's skin" — "horrible for the race, but full of consolation to the suffering individual." Taking Coleridge's formulation as his slogan, Gene Edward Veith offers still another portrait of George Herbert as a Protestant Poet, a poet who both embraces and illuminates the perplexing but ultimately consoling doctrines of Calvin. While such an approach to Herbert through Protestant theology is now widespread enough to no longer merit the label "revisionist," Veith's book is singular in its attempt to explain Calvin through Herbert and Herbert through Calvin as well as to reconstruct "phenomenologically" the spiritual experience of the Reformation . The attempt proves successful in many respects, particularly in justifying Calvin's ways to man. But as Veith's title suggests, one should not approach Reformation Spirituality : The Religion of George Herbert hoping to find particularly compelling, original, or authoritative readings of Herbert's poetry. The theological assumptions of Veith's synthesis rest upon some familiar underpinnings. Anglicanism, we are reminded, was "part of the Reformation movement" and to portray Herbert as a Protestant poet is by no means to deny his staunch Anglicanism. Similarly, to embrace the traditional portrait of Herbert as a model of Anglican piety is not necessarily to err, but one must carefully define the nature of that piety — neither "Anglo-Catholic'Vmedieval as T.S. Eliot or Rosemond Tuve might have it or simply rebellious as some "Protestant critics" might describe it. Further, the gaps usually perceived between Anglican and Puritan can be minimized as Protestantism is portrayed (as in the important study by Charles and Katherine George, The Protestant Mind of the English Reformation, 1570-1640) as an essentially coherent system, unanimous in the centrally important issues despite differing factions. 38BOOK REVIEWS The Protestant "paradigm" of salvation thus becomes the organizing point for the book. The opening chapter about Anglicanism is followed by chapters on "Sinne and Love," Justification by Faith, the Doctrine of Predestination, Sanctification , the Word, and "The Church and One's Calling." Veith assures us that "Reformation theology, which was particularly concerned with the stages and the process of Christian growth, helps explain the sequence and the ordering of the poems in The Temple." Some familiar evidence for that pattern is offered — "The Church-porch" advances the knowledge of the Law, the Easter sequence preaches Christ, the balance of "The Church" reflects the "imputation of righteousness" and the ebb and flow of sanctification — but the claim remains vague. The pattern "helps explain" Herbert's Templo, perhaps. But is it a strong organizational pattern for Herbert, one which he actively pursues? We cannot be sure. Throughout most of Reformation Spirituality Veith works best on the level of illustrating Calvinist doctrine through Herbert's poetry. "In 'Nature,' Herbert portrays the Reformation understanding of human depravity in terms of his own selfknowledge ." "The Collar," in the vocabulary of Calvin and the Reformation, "images the 'effectual calling' by which God calls the sinner to Himself." In "Aaron," the "complicated Reformation doctrines of the law, conviction of sin, justification by faith, imputation of righteousness, and 'resting in Christ' coalesce, the complicated interrelationships still intact, as Herbert forms them into poetry." "The Church Militant" reflects the Reformation emphasis upon the visible church as well as the central issue of "Calling." The cumulative effect of these readings is primarily a sympathetic, lucid explication of Calvin's doctrines — doctrines, we are led to believe, that offered great comfort to the believer and informed, even enabled, this great poetry. And while that theological emphasis inevitably leads Veith to poetic explications that are thin and no threat to displace current readings of Herbert, his interpretations through the theology are not without consequence. For instance, in claiming "The Collar" as the "supreme Calvinist poem" with its emphasis upon both the "depraved human will" and the "irresistible power of grace," Veith offers a clear alternative to the troubled and anxious poem described by Stanley Fish and Barbara Harman. Unfortunately , Veith rarely presses the point...