Religion in English History and Literature from THE CANTERBURY TALES through PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

FAIN: FV-50139-07

Ohio State University Research Foundation (Columbus, OH 43210-1435)
John N. King (Project Director: March 2007 to August 2009)

A four-week summer seminar for fifteen school teachers on the impact of religion on literature and history in England from 1385 through 1685.

This seminar would consider the impact of religion on literature and history of late medieval and early modern England (c. 1385-1685). Issues under study would include ongoing efforts to reform Christian worship, preaching, and devotion; Bible translation and biblical authority; and the persecution of dissidents. This program would offer models for how high school teachers can employ literature to understand history and history to understand literature. Writings under study would include texts by religious thinkers (e.g., Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus) and important literary texts by Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, John Milton, John Bunyan, and their contemporaries.