Donne's Media Theology

Abstract:This article adds a chapter to the philological history of the media concept, influentially set forth by John Guillory. John Donne's poetry and sermons demonstrate his intensive preoccupation with the idea of a medium as it is informed by early modern optical innovations: glass, windows, mirrors, the telescope. Such technologies not only fuel Donne's literary imagination, but also animate his theology of God as an eternally material medium. This article introduces Donne's materialist theology to the history and theory of media, while outlining a method of intellectual inquiry distinct from Guillory's secular project of genealogy altogether.