Robert Pollok's The course of time and literary theodicy in the romantic age the rise and fall of a Christian epic Davis, Deryl creator author. text bibliography Criticism, interpretation, etc. nyu 2024 2024 monographic eng print xxxi, 239 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. "This book explores the contexts and reception history of Robert Pollok's religious epic The Course of Time (1827), one of the best-selling long poems of the nineteenth century, which has been almost entirely forgotten today. Widely read in the United States and across the British Empire, the poem's combination of evangelical Calvinism, High Romanticism, and native Scottishness proved irresistible to many readers. This monograph traces the poem's origins as a defense of Biblical authority, divine providence, and religious orthodoxy (against figures like Byron and Joseph Priestley) and explores the reasons for The Course of Time's enormous, decades-long popularity and later precipitous decline. A close reading of the poem and an examination of its reception history offers readers important insights into the dynamic relationship between religion and wider culture in the nineteenth century, the uses of literature as a vehicle for theological argument and theodicy, and the important but often overlooked role that religion played in literary--and particularly, Scottish--Romanticism. This work will appeal to scholars of religious history, literary history, Evangelicalism, Romanticism, Scottish literature, and nineteenth-century culture"-- Deryl Davis. Includes bibliographical references and index. Pollok, Robert 1798-1827 Theodicy in literature Christian poetry, English 19th century History and criticism English poetry Scottish authors History and criticism Théodicée dans la littérature Poésie anglaise Auteurs écossais Histoire et critique Christian poetry, English English poetry Scottish authors Theodicy in literature 1800-1899 fast PR5189.P2 C63 2024 821/.709 Robert Pollok's The course of time and literary theodicy in the romantic age Davis, Deryl, 1963- New York : Routledge, 2024 (DLC) 2023025298 Routledge studies in romanticism 9781032523101 1032523107 9781032523156 1032523158 9781003406075 2023025297 pda,print DLC 230707 20250318223425.3 in00005466911 eng