ABSTRACT The Symbol’s End: Reflections on the Coleridgean Symbol’s Eschatological Telos DeAnn Barta Stuart, Ph.D. Mentor: Joshua King, Ph.D. In his famous definition of the symbol, Coleridge employs three terms that draw the symbol’s ultimate, eschatological telos into relief – representation, participation, and conveyance. Through symbolic representation, created things are attached firmly to their corresponding spiritual realities. Symbolic participation allows created things (especially human beings) to grow in likeness to the spiritual realities they represent, and symbolic conveyance transports created things (especially human beings) toward spiritual wholeness and unity with their divine origin. Before Coleridge adopted these terms to explain the symbol’s nature and end, Anglican theologians such as Richard Hooker and Jeremy Taylor regularly used them to articulate the nature and end of the Eucharistic symbol. Locating Coleridge’s definition of symbolic representation, participation, and conveyance in his commentary on the Eucharistic symbol and aligning it with the Eucharistic theology of Hooker and Taylor, I first prove that Coleridge considered the Eucharist to be an archetypal symbol. Then, I show how concentrating on the Eucharistic connotations for these three terms brings into sharper focus an eschatological telos for the symbol that has previously remained obscure. Finally, I detail what Coleridge imagines the eschatological state toward which the symbol points will be. The Symbol's End: Reflections on the Coleridgean Symbol's Eschatological Telos by DeAnn Barta Stuart, B.A., M.Hum. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of English Kevin J. Gardner, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee Joshua King, Ph.D., Chairperson Dianna Vitanza, Ph.D. Luke Ferretter, Ph.D. Ralph C.Wood, Ph.D. David Lyle Jeffrey, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School May 2016 J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2016 DeAnn Barta Stuart All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures……………………………………….…………………………….. vi A Note on Parenthetical Citations………………………………………...……..…. vii Acknowledgments…………………...…………..…………..….……………….………. ix Dedication…………..………………………………………..………………………...... xi Chapter One………...……………………………………………………..………...……. 1 The Coleridgean Symbol and Its Eschatological Telos……………………...…....1 Chapter Two…………………………...………………………..……………..……...… 33 The Eucharistic Symbol: Coleridge and the Anglican Divines………..……..…33 Chapter Three……………...…………………………………………...……………..… 57 Eucharistic and Symbolic Representation: Relationship and Ascent………..…57 Chapter Four……………………………………………….………………………......... 93 Eucharistic and Symbolic Participation: Assimilation and Anticipation…........93 Chapter Five……………………………………………..…………………………….. 148 Eschatological Reality: The Final Subordination of Matter to Spirit…….......148 Chapter Six…………..…………………………………..….………………..………....203 How Anglican and Eucharistic Is Coleridge’s Symbol? .……………………203 Bibliography…………………...……………………….…………………….…......….231 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. Correspondence between the Coleridgean symbol and a Christian sacrament according to Robert Barth……………………………………………………….46 Figure 2.2. Correspondence between the Coleridgean symbol and a “moderate realist” view of the Anglican Eucharistic sacrament……………………………………..53 Figure 3.1. Coleridge’s hierarchy of representation… ………………………………… 85 Figure 3.2. Relation of Coleridgean ideas to Christ and to God the Father… ……...….. 89 Figure 4.1. Downward and upward assimilation……..……………..……………..…... 109 Figure 4.2. Downward and upward assimilation via humanity………………..…..…... 133 Figure 6.1. Coleridge’s conceptual account of the symbol’s evolution…………….…..221 Figure 6.2. Coleridge’s literary account of the symbol’s evolution……………..…..… 222 Figure 6.3. Poetic and consummate symbols……………...……………………..…….. 223 vi A NOTE ON PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS When parenthetically citing Coleridge’s works, I have adopted the standard abbreviations used in the Bollingen Collected Coleridge series. Since all my citations (with the exception of those taken from the Notebooks) come from the Collected Coleridge, I have elided the (CC) from the Bollingen abbreviations. For content appearing in the Marginalia, the volume and page number follow the abbreviation (e.g., CM3.454 refers to Coleridge’s Marginalia, volume 3, page 454). For the content appearing in the Notebooks, the volume and entry number follow the abbreviation (e.g., CN5.6170 refers to Coleridge’s Notebooks, volume 5, entry 6170). Works by Coleridge cited in the pages that follow AR Aids to Reflection BL Biographia Literaria C&S On the Constitution of Church and State CIS Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit CL Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge CM Marginalia CN The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge EOT Essays on His Times Friend The Friend Lects 1808- Lectures 1808-1819: On Literature 19 LS Lay Sermons, including The Statesman’s Manual vii OM Opus Maximum PL Lectures 1818-1819, On the History of Philosophy SW&F Shorter Works and Fragments TT Table Talk I have similarly abbreviated the titles for Jeremy Taylor’s and Richard Hooker’s works. According to convention, Hooker’s multi-volume Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity is cited by indicating the volume number, followed by the section and paragraph numbers (e.g., 5.55.7 refers to the fifth volume of the Laws, section 55, paragraph 7). I have adopted that model for Jeremy Taylor’s The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament Proved against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation as well, indicating the section number followed by the paragraph number (e.g., 2.8 refers to section 2, paragraph 8). Section and paragraph numbers were not available for Taylor’s The Worthy Communicant (1853), so I simply cited page numbers. Works by Taylor and Hooker cited in the pages that follow Laws Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1888) LD The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus (1851) RP The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament Proved against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation (1852) WC The Worthy Communicant: A Discourse of the Nature, Effects and Blessings Consequent to the Worthy Receiving of the Lord’s Supper (1853) viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” the biblical psalmist asked. I find myself directing a similar question toward all those who have helped me along my academic road: how can I ever repay the benefits I have received from the hands of so many generous people? For now, a sincere thank-you will have to do. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Joshua King, my mentor and dissertation director. Without his encouragement, his probing questions, and the hours he spent poring over several versions of this dissertation, I doubt I would have been able to produce a product I could be proud of. Next, I’d like to thank Ralph Wood and Dianna Vitanza for opening my eyes to the intersections between literature and religion and for providing such valuable feedback at both the beginning and end of my dissertation writing process. Additionally, I’d like to express my thanks to David Lyle Jeffrey and Luke Ferretter, the remaining members of my dissertation committee, whose comments and critiques have strengthened my work. My heartfelt gratitude also extends to Stan Mattson, who took an aspiring scholar under his wings and encouraged her to apply to Baylor in the first place. My time at Baylor has been soul-enlarging, filled with generous and brilliant professors and with friends who have challenged me, loved me, and made me laugh until my sides ached. A special thank you goes out to all the members of DDG and SOCRG, in whom I found treasured friendship, an abundance of virtue, deep wells of wisdom, and razor-sharp wit ix To Monica Ashour, Alyssan Barnes, and Dayspring Brock, I also owe an unrepayable debt of gratitude. For over ten years now, conversation with them has given me an open vista where my thoughts and opinions have been allowed to roam freely. Their support, their encouragement, and their willingness to accompany me down whatever road I find myself on has been and continues to be one of my greatest blessings. Louise Cowan, who modelled for me what it means to seek wisdom in literature, also deserves a note of thanks. The benefits I received from her are too great to be counted. I’d also like to thank Emily Crawford, my staunchest supporter. Without her prayers, her unfailing faithfulness, her boundless compassion, and her ability to speak the truth in love, I would be a mess of a human being. Very few people can be relied upon to drop whatever they’re doing and to render aid one hundred percent of the time, and my parents are among them. Thank you, Jerry and Joyce Barta, for being such tremendous models of selfless love, determined labor, and deep humanity. Finally, I’d like to thank my husband, Kevin Stuart, not only for acting as a sounding board against which I could bounce many of the conclusions that appear in this dissertation, but also for the meals he cooked, the chores he completed, and the protected hours of time he carved out for me, all so I could devote my entire mind to this project. Thank you for graciously sharing me with Coleridge during the first year and a half of our marriage. x To Ann Barta, who beamed with pride at the prospect of seeing her granddaughter hooded xi CHAPTER ONE The Coleridgean Symbol and Its Eschatological Telos ‘Symbol’ was not a foreign term when Coleridge pressed it into literary service for his 1816 publication of The Statesman’s Manual. Those familiar with Greek would have recognized the Greek word Σύμβολν (symbolon), its original meaning (‘something put together’), and its original secular usage: to identify a figurative representation, such as that found in art and literature and to indicate a sign or token “either verbal, the parole of the soldier (tessera militaris); or something to indicate membership in a society, a token such as a seal ring” (Briggs 4).