The Near and Distant God: Poetry, Idealism and Religious Thought from Hölderlin to Eliot

Poetry and philosophy from the time of Kant to the mid-twentieth century are centrally concerned with the question of how the Spirit — or the Holy Spirit — is present in the world. Cooper argues that a major strand in the development of modern poetry in German and English can be seen as a protracted response to the religious crises of post-Idealist thought. The German tradition develops through poets such as Hölderlin as much as through philosophers such as Hegel and Nietzsche, and in England German ideas profoundly influenced the British Idealist school. This compelling study makes parallel readings of German and English writers, showing that their affinities are deeper and more historically-based than has previously been realised. Eduard Mörike and Gerard Manley Hopkins, both churchmen, each encountered Idealism as students in their respective countries: each responded to it in his spiritual verse. And we find similar parallels in two of the defining works of twentieth-century poetry: Rilke’s Duino Elegies and Eliot’s Four Quartets.