Sex, Sonnets, and Sermons: The Erotic Theology of John Donne

Abstract

I intend to use the epithalamia or marriage songs, enhanced by analysis of Donne's sermons, as conceptual bridges to understand the persistence of sexual and physical language from Donne's.secular love poetry to his religious poetry. The concept of marriage encapsulated in the epithalamia and some of the sermons (particularly the sermon preached at the marriage of Mistress Margaret Washington in 1621) can help us navigate the conceptual transition within Donne's corpus from the strong, confident speaker willing to yoke spiritual themes and language to the physical task of seduction to the boldly passive, demurely aggressive, frequently androgynous voice in the Holy Sonnets. . . . The task of this thesis takes on additional significance in our 21 st century religious environment often riven by passionate, emotional debates about the nature of human sexuality and the role religions play in shaping our understanding of human sexuality. In my epilogue, I try to explain what I think can be taken from an understanding of Donne's erotic devotion to begin healing some of the wounds in the church and in individual believers. Donne's persistently sexual spirituality introduces ( sometimes shocking) new ideas about the way human beings relate to God, and the many ways in which God continues to say in reply to our doubts, queries, and quandaries, "I love them." [From Introduction]