Theology of Wagner’s Ring Cycle I

“Add this to your list of essential reading! Comprehensive and authoritative, Bell’s Theology of Wagner’s Ring Cycle I maps the theological territories of Wagner’s wide-ranging literary, poetic, philosophical, and musical influences. Never before has The Ring been subject to such a sustained theological argument and approach . . . a conceptually transformative book bound to recalibrate our understanding of Wagner and his intellectual world.”


—Bennett Zon, Director, Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, Durham University; General Editor, Nineteenth-Century Music Review





“Applying a theological lens to familiar ground, Richard Bell argues in these volumes that Wagner’s Ring cycle can be seen as a Christian allegory. Through a rich account of the composer’s intellectual world, the author unpacks such classic theological concerns as nature and the fall; love, death, and immortality; freedom, necessity, and providence; and redemption—to the great benefit of both Wagnerians and theologians.”


—Stephen McClatchie, Professor of Theology & the Arts, Huron University College, London, Ontario





“I am not aware of any more meticulous trawl of the voluminous sources for, and influences on, the Ring, through the ancient Greek dramas, Old Norse and Germanic myths, Dante and Shakespeare to Goethe and Schiller. The work of the major German Idealists—Fichte, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Feuerbach, and Schopenhauer—is subjected to forensic analysis for Wagner’s debt to each. Above all, Professor Bell is concerned to demonstrate possible influences on theological and ethical issues in the Ring.”


—Barry Millington, Editor, The Wagner Journal; Chief Music Critic, London Evening Standard





“In this erudite and formidably researched study, Richard Bell situates Wagner’s Ring cycle within the context of some of the most powerful and influential systems of thought to have shaped the Western mind. Of interest to theologians, philosophers, and historians alike, Bell’s challenging ideas will not only inform current and future debates around Wagner, but stimulate and provoke in equal measure.”


—Roger Allen, Emeritus Fellow in Music, University of Oxford