Philip Larkin and Christian Unbelief
Since his death in 1985, Philip Larkin has continued to be regarded as perhaps the finest poet of the later twentieth century, while his wider popularity has grown and he is commonly seen as a touchstone of his period's beliefs and culture. Writing in a secular age, when Christianity has been r...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Rural theology
Year: 2025, Volume: 23, Issue: 2, Pages: 143-152 |
| Further subjects: | B
Church
B poetic form B Indifference B Unbelief B Death B Disbelief |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Since his death in 1985, Philip Larkin has continued to be regarded as perhaps the finest poet of the later twentieth century, while his wider popularity has grown and he is commonly seen as a touchstone of his period's beliefs and culture. Writing in a secular age, when Christianity has been rejected or more commonly ignored by most poets and writers, Larkin produced a small number of poems which show a strong imaginative engagement with Christian culture and experience, not least the mindset of the attentive unbeliever. This paper does not suggest that Larkin ever gave intellectual assent to Christian beliefs, but argues that certain major poems, notably ‘Church Going’ and ‘The Explosion’, show qualities of insightful unbelief, or in one case an experiment with belief, which make them significant religious texts in a secular age. |
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| ISSN: | 2042-1273 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Rural theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14704994.2025.2545643 |
