Denae Dyck

Surprised by Hope: Possibilities of Spiritual Experience in Victorian Lyric Poetry

Religions February 25, 2025 Denae Dyck

This article reconsiders literature’s capacity to express and evoke spiritual experiences by turning to William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience, especially his discussion of mysticism and his suggestion that poetry can bring about such states. James’s ideas are especially promising given recent developments in postsecular and postcritical scholarship that problematize a...