"John Donne was deeply involved in the theological and ideological debates of his time. In this study, Theresa DiPasquale explores the literary implications of that engagement.".

"DiPasquale argues that Donne was greatly influenced by his response to the Reformation debate over the sacraments - Baptism and the Eucharist - in formulating his understanding of the written word as visible sign, of the poet as the quasi-divine maker of that sign, and of the reader as its receiver. Structured around close readings of Donne's poems, Literature & Sacrament considers poems, especially of a secular nature, that have not been previously viewed from this perspective.".

"Throughout this work, DiPasquale draws on other recent scholarship that acknowledges the insufficiency of talking about "Protestant" against "Catholic" or even "Anglican" against "Puritan" beliefs when talking about seventeenth century English culture. Indeed, a multiplicity of theological perspectives were competing in the English church.

The study, then, attempts to reconstruct Donne's own, quite nuanced theology of sacrament to provide a guide to his poetics and, in particular, to his conception of the exchange between author and reader.".

"Because the theological ferment of the seventeenth century so influenced and involved the society as a whole, this study not only sheds new light on Donne's poems but also on the reading audience of the time and the ways in which they received and responded to these "poetic sacraments.""--BOOK JACKET.