What makes one poem better than another? Do Christians have an obligation to strive for excellence in the arts? While orthodox Christians are generally quick to affirm the existence of absolute truth and absolute goodness, even many within the church fall prey to the postmodern delusion that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This book argues that Christian doctrine in fact gives us a solid basis on which to make aesthetic judgments about poetry in particular and about the arts more generally. The faith once and for all delivered unto the saints is remarkable in its combined emphasis on embodied particularity and meaningful transcendence. This unique combination makes it the perfect starting place for art that speaks to who we are as creatures made for eternity.
Benjamin Myers is a former poet laureate of Oklahoma and is the author of three books of poetry. His poems and essays have appeared in Image, The Yale Review, First Things, and many other journals. He teaches at Oklahoma Baptist University, where he is the Crouch-Mathis Professor of Literature.
“From Dante to Eliot to now, Benjamin Myers guides his pilgrim readers through the best of what has been said and thought. As a poet, he shares his love of beautiful verse, and as a thinker, he unveils the theology behind writers’ use of image, form, and metaphor. . . . Myers provides us more tools for cultivating a poetic imagination, so we may better hear the voice of God.”
—Jessica Hooten Wilson, Associate Professor of Literature, John Brown University
“How radical and courageous it sounds to begin a book about poetry, as Benjamin Myers does, ‘I am a poet and a Christian.’ Myers makes an argument that Christian poetry, like all good poetry, ‘strives towards uniting words and world.’ We need a book like this for poetry and Christianity in the twenty-first century.”
—Mark Jarman, author of Dailiness: Essays on Poetry
“The spirit of utilitarianism and efficiency that forms modern culture, as well as the church and all of us in it, could not be more opposed to the gracious spirit of God. A Poetics of Orthodoxy movingly and soundly puts beauty in its rightful place: at the heart of God and at the center of human perception.”
—Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well
“Benjamin Myers shows just why it is that Christians will become better Christians by understanding poetry and beauty, and why poets will become better poets by undertaking the adventure of Christian orthodoxy. . . . Myers builds from the ground up to show us a better way to be human in a sadly ‘excarnated’ world.”
—James Matthew Wilson, Poetry Editor, Modern Age
“A Poetics of Orthodoxy offers a delicious recipe not only for an antidote to the destructive trends of Gnosticism that plague the modern church, but one that if taken in sufficient doses—and extended from poetry to all the arts—will address also the commercialism and superficiality that often invade church culture, offering instead beauty, goodness, and grace, and a chance to understand and reflect the image of our artistic and creative God.”
—Matthew Dickerson, author of The Mind and the Machine
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