Ruskin's God

A full-length study of the impact that John Ruskin's religion had upon his writings, first published in 1999.

Michael Wheeler (Author)

9780521574143, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 November 1999

324 pages, 25 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.65 kg

'A scholarly tour de force.' Peter Stiles, Christianity and Literature

In this 1999 book, Michael Wheeler challenges critical orthodoxy by arguing that John Ruskin's writing is underpinned by a sustained trust in divine wisdom: a trust nurtured by his imaginative engagement with King Solomon and the temple in Jerusalem, and with the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. In Modern Painters, The Seven Lamps of Architecture and The Stones of Venice, belief in the wisdom of God the Father informed Ruskin's Evangelical natural theology and his celebration of Turner's landscape painting, while the wisdom of God the Son lay at the heart of his Christian aesthetics. Whereas 'the author of Modern Painters' sought to teach his readers how to see architecture, paintings and landscapes, the 'Victorian Solomon' whose religious life was troubled, and who created various forms of modern wisdom literature in works such as Unto this Last, The Queen of the Air and Fors Clavigera, wished to teach them how to live.

List of plates
Preface
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction: 'To enlighten a People by your Wisdom': the divine commission
Part I. The author of Modern Painters: 2. 'The Shechinah of the blue': in God's temple
3. 'The Peace of God' and a Christian theory of art
4. 'The Book-Temple': a Protestant beholder of St Mark's
5. 'True sacred art' and Christ the great high priest
6. Solomon's 'Christian royalty': a rite of passage in Turin
Part II. Victorian Solomon: 7. Solomon's 'maxims concerning wealth'
8. Science, myth and a creative wisdom
9. St George, St Francis and the rule of love and wisdom
10. Fragments of Christendom in Venice and Amiens
11. The 'visible Heaven' and apocalyptic wisdom
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]