Psalms, Poetry and Scotland

Stein, Jock (2021) Temple and tartan - Psalms, poetry and Scotland. PhD thesis. Volume 1 of 2: Temple and tartan http://theses.gla.ac.uk/82294/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] 1 Temple and Tartan – Psalms, Poetry and Scotland Jock Stein MA BD submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow January 2021 2 Abstract In this Creative Research Project, Poetry (‘Word and Weave’) and Thesis (‘Temple and Tartan’) make a bifocal engagement with the Old Testament Psalms to provide substantial new insights. The Thesis examines how other poets have responded to the Psalms, and considers their reception history in Scotland. It shows how this creative response to the Psalms was birthed, shaped and developed using seven distinct roles of the poet. The first chapter introduces the writer and his poetry, and the Old Testament Psalms, along with a Practice Review. With the poet as enquirer, it explains how Word and Weave was planned in five sections, like the Psalms themselves. With the poet as interpreter, the poetry is placed in the wider context of hermeneutics, inspiration and exegesis, how other poets have treated Psalms, and how Psalms 1 and 2 frame the poetry as well as the Psalms themselves. ‘Temple’ - a contemporary key to understanding OT theology – links the material present of politics and personal experience with the transcendent, where the poet is wonder-struck. ‘Tartan’, with its complex history and its links with music, introduces synaesthesia, and shows the poet as dresser (even sometimes closet rebel). The poet as curator remembers and presents history in chosen ways, as in epic poetry. Themes of character, rule and equality – in early Scotland, medieval Scotland, and reformation Scotland – are central to the Psalms, and run through many of the individual poems. The poet is also prophet: in Word and Weave the poetry picks up both the identity of Israel and the sense of identity of Scots past and present. The poems research this dual identity, and tensions which Scots still live with. Finally the poet as weaver works the creative research of this Project into a vision for Scotland today, using a lens of five key words – lines, tribes, land, capital, leaders – and the Thesis adds a postscript on the theology uncovered. 3 Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 5 Author’s Declaration 6 Chapter 1 Introduction – the Poet as Enquirer 7 1.1 Project Aim 7 1.2 Practice Review 12 1.3 The Biblical Psalms 17 1.4 My Voice 21 1.5 The Presentation 24 Chapter 2 Poetry and the Psalms – the Poet as Interpreter 29 2.1 The Psalms as Poetry 29 2.2 Inspiration 32 2.3 Interpretation 36 2.4 Poetry and Exegesis 43 2.5 Psalms 1 and 2 46 2.6 How Poets treat the Psalms 50 Chapter 3 Temple – the Poet as Wonder-struck 55 3.1 Temple and Cosmos 55 3.2 ANE Religion, Genesis and Psalms 56 3.3 Temple Words 60 3.4 Relevant Jewish Writing 66 3.5 New Testament and Early Church 70 3.6 Some Examples of Temple in Literature 75 4 Chapter 4 Tartan – the Poet as Dresser (and Rebel) 81 4.1 Tartan and Tartanry 81 4.2 Music, Tartan and the Psalms 86 4.3 The Caledonian Antisyzygy 95 4.4 Suspicion, Trust, Subversion 99 Chapter 5 The Psalms and Scottish History – the Poet as Curator 105 5.1 Preserving and Presenting 105 5.2 Early Scotland – Character 110 5.3 Medieval Scotland – Rule 117 5.4 Reformed Scotland – Equality 127 Chapter 6 The Psalms and Scottish Identity – the Poet as Prophet 136 6.1 Prophecy Now and Then 136 6.2 The Psalms and National Identity 139 6.3 Israel and Scotland 144 6.4 Later Scotland – Tension 151 Chapter 7 Tapestry – the Poet as Weaver 162 7.1 Scotland Today – Vision 162 7.2 Transcendence 173 7.3 Conclusions 180 Bibliography 186 5 Acknowledgments Thanks to Ophira Gamliel, Irene Howat, Suzanna Millar and John Richardson for help with Hebrew, Scots and Latin. To Susan Gillingham, Douglas Galbraith, Stephen Holmes and Emsley Nimmo, for help with reception of the Psalms. To John Purser and Jamie Reid-Baxter for what they shared with me about music and the Psalms, Scottish and Gaelic versions. To staff of the Scottish Poetry Library, Richard Bapty of Glasgow University Library, Jamie Sutherland of Edinburgh University Library, Michael McGinnes of the Stirling Smith Museum, Fiona Brodie of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, and Oliver Beldham of Nielsen Book Data. To many academics for advice, including Graeme Auld, Ian Campbell and the late Larry Hurtado; Jane Dawson, David Fergusson and Alison Jack of Edinburgh University, John Davies and Dauvit Broun of Glasgow University, Donald MacLeod of Edinburgh Theological Seminary, Iain Provan of Regent College, Vancouver, Simon Smith of Kent University, Will Storrar of the Centre for Theological Enquiry in Princeton and others like Alastair McIntosh. Stewart J. Brown introduced me to the thought of J.H. Newman on education, Mary Miller expanded my knowledge of the life of Jane Haining, and David Dutton told me more about John Brown of Haddington. I thank Fiona Ellis for the reference to Paul Tillich in chapter 7. A number of writers were kind enough to spend time with me and share their wisdom, including John Bell, Edward Clarke, John Coutts, Christine De Luca, Malcolm Guite, Diana Hendry, Andrew Philip, Michael Symmons Roberts, Sam Tongue, and especially Harry Smart. Ian White, who wrote and performed lyrics of all the Psalms in the 1980s, was an inspiration. My two supervisors, Doug Gay and Alan Riach, kept me on track, encouraged me with their friendship, and inspired me with their ideas and literary connections. Special thanks to them (and Hugh Pyper and Colin Herd, examiners at the Viva). 6 Author’s Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own work, and that it has not been submitted anywhere for any other degree or professional qualification. Where other sources of information have been used, they have been duly acknowledged. Signed Dated 6th January 2021 7 Chapter 1 Introduction – The Poet as Enquirer ‘One thing I asked of the Lord . to inquire in his temple.’ (Psalm 27:4) 1.1 Project Aim This Research Project, writing poetry on all of the Old Testament Psalms, is first the creation of a work of art which will allow readers to experience the ‘reach’ of the Psalms through time and space, through inner worlds and outer worlds, through selected characters and concepts in Israel, Scotland and the contemporary world.1 This will be expanded in 1.5 and developed in the rest of the Thesis. It has been argued2 that the theologies of Judaism and Christianity embrace three beliefs: (1) There is nowhere God cannot be found;3 (2) All human life is found within the Psalms, as Athanasius put it;4 (3) The Psalms model a way of finding transcendence alongside immanence, something which is an issue for the contemporary arts in general,5 and for public life,6 as well as theology,7 although older poets took it for granted.8 1 Accepting the challenge set by Iain Crichton Smith: ‘The Bible stands like a big rock which no one attends to . .’ (‘The Bible’ from New Collected Poems, Carcanet, Manchester 2011). 2 See for example Patrick Woodhouse, Life in the Psalms, Bloomsbury, London 2015, 19-20. 3 As in Psalm 139:7-12. 4 Athanasius, On the Incarnation, ed. and trans. A Religious of C.S.M.V., Mowbray, London 1953, 116. He also said they help a person recognise his own voice (‘Psalms 11 and 12 he will use as the expression of his own faith and prayer’, Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms, http://www.athanasius.com/psalms/aletterm.htm, accessed 8/9/19). Alec Ryrie disagrees, arguing that the Psalms rather reflect aspects of the Protestant experience (Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 101 2010, 128). 5 See Jeremy Begbie, Redeeming Transcendence in the Arts, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 2018. 6 Rowan Williams discusses how to keep the public sphere open ‘to the possibilities of the transcendent’ in The Way of St Benedict, Bloomsbury Continuum, London 2020, 82. 7 See for example John W. Cooper, Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers, IVP, Nottingham 2007. 8 Coleridge in ‘The Ancient Mariner’ continually balances the two. In his book on Coleridge (Mariner, Hodder, London 2017), Malcolm Guite cites the poet David Jones responding to the poem with Psalm 42:7. Other than that, he would see the power of imagination connecting the two (Faith, Hope and Poetry, Ashgate, Farnham 2012, 243). 8 The poetry reflects these beliefs. Second, the Thesis sets these poems in the context of other writing on the Psalms, and show how they shed light on the history of Scotland and on some contemporary questions, by exploring connections between issues and periods which may not have been made before,9 in the spirit of the Jewish tradition of interpreting Torah,10 and the ‘Democratic Intellect’ in Scotland.11 It is unusual for a PhD thesis to have this kind of broad reach, rather than be focused on a detailed area of research.12 While there have been studies of individual psalms, a study of the whole Psalter invites a different approach.

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