The Man Behind the Arras
A Will to Believe: Shakespeare and Religion
by David Scott Kastan
Oxford University Press, 2014
(164 pages, $40.00, hardcover)
reviewed by Graeme Hunter
The first thing you notice about Shakespeare is how effortlessly he writes, and his God-like way of taking delight, and making you delight, in all the works of his hands. His writings show you life itself, a gift as rich as it is rare, but they reveal nothing about their author beyond his literary greatness. Persevere, though, and at some point in reading one of his plays, or seeing it performed, a sublime moment is sure to come in which the veil is lifted and the clarifying beauty of his vision seems to offer you not just an unclouded understanding of human life but also a glimpse of the playwright's tender and perceptive heart.We all get these epiphanies from time to time. If we are wise, we keep them to ponder in our hearts, but are wary of taking them to market. Scholarly readers are often less prudent and rush into print trailing clouds of dubious insight.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Graeme Hunter is a contributing editor to Touchstone and Research Professor of Philosophy at Dominican University College in Ottawa. He is the author of Radical Protestantism in Spinoza's Thought (Ashgate).
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
24.1—January/February 2011
How Planned Parenthood's Founder Played the Christians, and Won by Allan C. Carlson
18.8—October 2005
European Islam & the Doubtful Future of Christian Europe by William Murchison
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
