Arguing with Paul

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores how John Donne imitates Paul’s style in the Holy Sonnets. In the sonnets, Donne’s poetic speakers frequently shift from acts of reason—reflecting, inquiring, disputing—to acts of rhetoric—exclaiming, persuading, petitioning—typically once they reach a logical paradox or argumentative impasse in their theological meditations and debates. The chapter shows that Donne draws on Pauline style to coordinate these shifts between reason and rhetoric in the sonnets, often transitioning from theological reflection to rhetorical exclamation between the octave and the sestet; more specifically, it shows that Donne imitates passages from Paul’s epistles in which Paul discusses in logical-discursive terms a theological doctrine—predestination, justification, sanctification, the resurrection—only to leave his explanation of the doctrine unresolved and break into highly dramatic, emotionally driven exclamations. Donne uses this stylistic dynamic to to dramatize the devotional implications of Paul’s refusal or failure to fully rationalize a fundamental set of theological concepts.