| FA-53242-07 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Richard Charles McCoy | Faith in Shakespeare: Theater and Theology | 9/1/2007 - 8/31/2008 | $40,000.00 | Richard | Charles | McCoy | | | | CUNY Research Foundation, Queens College | Flushing | NY | 11367-1575 | USA | 2006 | British Literature | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 40000 | 0 | 40000 | 0 |
Religion has returned, after a long hiatus, as a major concern in Shakespeare studies, but a dark and disenchanted view of theology and theater still dominates current scholarship. I will challenge this view on both historical and performative grounds. Eamon Duffy contends that Protestants made iconoclasm “the central sacrament of . . . reform,” but most reformers were not iconoclasts, and they retained their faith in ritual and sacramental efficacy. Communion was grounded in what one called “a confederation of our affections” rather than a metaphysical real presence. Faith, in Shakespeare’s theater, demands a comparable sense of emotional “confederation,” and I propose to explore the sources of that faith. |