Shelley and Scripture

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's early appropriation of Scriptural elements is seen to be based on the Bible's ethical content and its ideals of the kingdom of heaven, while in the period…