Ironies of Faith: The Laughter at the Heart of Christian Literature

by Anthony Esolen

In Ironies of Faith, celebrated Dante scholar and translator Anthony Esolen provides a profound meditation upon the use and place of irony in Christian art and in the Christian life. Beginning with an extended analysis of irony as an essentially dramatic device, Esolen explores those manifestations of irony that appear prominently in Christian thinking and art: ironies of time (for Christians believe in divine Providence, but live in a world whose moments pass away); ironies of power (for Christians believe in an almighty God who took on human flesh, and whose “weakness” is stronger than our greatest enemy, death); ironies of love (for man seldom knows whom to love, or how, or even whom it is that in the depths of his heart he loves best); and the figure of the Child (for Christians ever hear the warning voice of their Savior, who says that unless we become like unto one of these little ones, we shall not enter the Kingdom of God).

Esolen’s finely wrought study draws from Augustine (Confessions), Dante (The Divine Comedy), Shakespeare (The Tempest), and Tolkien (“Leaf, By Niggle”); Francois Mauriac (A Kiss for the Leper), Milton (Paradise Lost), and Alessandro Manzoni (The Betrothed); the poems of George Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Edmund Spenser (Amoretti); Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol), Dostoyevsky (The Brothers Karamazov), and the anonymous author of the medieval poem Pearl, among other works. Readers who treasure the Christian literary tradition should not miss this illuminating book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, Religion, Christian, Theology, Literary Fiction, Catholic

429 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2014

About the author

Anthony Esolen is the author of over twenty-five books and over 1,000 articles in both scholarly and general interest journals. A senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, Esolen is known for his elegant essays on the faith and for his clear social commentaries. His articles appear regularly in Touchstone, Crisis, First Things, Public Discourse, The Catholic Thing, Chronicles, Inside the Vatican, and Magnificat, among others. An accomplished poet in his own right, Esolen is known for his widely acclaimed three-volume verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Modern Library). His Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child has been described as "a worthy successor to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man." And its sequel, Life Under Compulsion, has been called "essential reading for parents, educators, and anyone who is concerned to rescue children from the tedious and vacuous thing childhood has become." His recent books of social commentary include Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World, and the forthcoming, No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends upon the Strength of Men.

Anthony Esolen has been writing his own poetry for decades, but until recently most of his published poetry has appeared in his verse translations of the great poets, Dante, Tasso, and Lucretius. More than a hundred of his own poems have appeared in such venues as Fine Madness, The Plains Poetry Journal, and Modern Age. After studying and teaching great poetry for nearly thirty years, Professor Esolen set out to write a book-length unified poem of his own, a project which he hopes will show that serious and significant long poetic works can still be written in our time. The result of his effort is The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, a book-length single poem composed of 100 parts -- short lyrics, dramatic monologues, and hymns -- centered on the life of Christ. He is working now on a second such long poem, The Twelve-Gated City, a collection of 144 interrelated poems centered on the parable of the prodigal son.

The grandson of Italian immigrants to America, Anthony Esolen was born and raised in the coal-mining country of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his Ph. D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Fellow. He is the 2020 recipient of the CIRCE Institute's Russel Kirk Prize, awarded each year to a writer and scholar "in honor of a lifetime dedicated to the cultivation of wisdom and virtue." He is writer-in-residence at Magdalen College in Warner, NH.

For more from the mind and pen of Anthony Esolen, visit his online magazine called Word and Song, at https://anthonyesolen.substack.com

Reviews

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fine work.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading another of Esolen's works, I sped to this one, because I was quite enamored by his takes on great Christian literature. This was perhaps a mistake--his writing can be dense, and you don't want to miss any of it, so perhaps I should have taken a breather! The title "ironies" refer to ironies of time (God works across the ages to bring things to pass in unexpected ways and in surprising "coincidences"), of power (the weak shall conquer the strong), and love (why would an omnipotent creator waste his time loving dust-based organisms, and then compelling them to love others?).

Esolen addresses this ironies through great Christian pieces of literature. His treatment of George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Shakespeare's the Tempest, Milton's Paradise Lost, Dickens (especially the Christmas Carol), and Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov are especially enlightening. Anyone who reads Shakespeare while ignoring his strong Christian overtones and messages is severely missing the point. Esolen takes great pains to help his reader appreciate these great (not a term to use lightly) works of literature, as we all should.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me over two years to read it, because I made it my "car" book which means it was there for me when I was out and about (waiting on sons to finish sports, doctor's office visits, etc.). But I thoroughly enjoyed this book, recommended it to a lot of folks.

Dr. Esolen took me on a romp through literature showing me the irony of the Christian faith from a number of differing themes and works. I won't write my full review here but over on my book and movie review site. None the less, it was a very enjoyable book that gave me a lot of new insights on the paradoxical and ironic side of the Christian life.

We covered the laughter that is at the heart of a Christian view of Time, Love, Humility, Vision, Power, and even Childhood.

[David Withun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Christopher Raffa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal book, with so much wisdom. Lots of gem quotes. But you must be patient and an attentive reader to find them. As Esolen notes in the conclusion it would have been longer had he included more authors who were certainly deserving of inclusion in this massive work. I slowly read this over a few months. I did not rush through it. And while I was not familiar with, or read many of the works that Esolen was delving into, I enjoyed being introduced to such classic literature and it certainly piqued my interest in reading their works. Esolen's hope for the reader as they flip its pages bears repeating "What I hope I have shown in this book is that the teachings of Christianity give to irony a richer constellation of possibilities than the pagan world could have supposed existed" (p.400).

[David Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Mr. Esolen's online essays for years, and I've read the first two volumes of his translation of "The Divine Comedy". This is the first of his original books I've read, but certainly not the last.

For me, the title was a little deceptive. Irony in this book means a difference between the common and the Christian understanding of a concept. Esolen means something like St. Paul's message to the Corinthians: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness". In this book, Esolen carefully examines this wisdom of Christ and the foolishness of the nations. He looks at differences in the understanding of power, of time, and of love.

The form he has chosen is the literary essay. He chooses a selection of works to illustrate each of his three themes (power, time, love). Ranging from Aeschylus and Sophocles to the anonymous author of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "The Pearl" to William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, it amounts to a great reading list and a most unusual analysis of these well-known texts.

I haven't read before such a combination of theology, literary analysis, and cri de coeur. Unusal, and bracing. The author's upcoming book "Nostalgia" (https://smile.amazon.com/Nostalgia-Go...) looks like a similar take on a different theme; I'm looking forward to it.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor Esolen examines the role of irony in Christian literature, drawing on his wide and deep learning; his wit and elegance as a writer; and his sharp and capacious mind. The book bristles with epigrams of profound insight, such as "the problem with skeptics and cynics is not only the faith they lose, but the faith they gain" or "God uses time to orient [us] toward eternity" or "we are characters in God's story ... every moment of our lives is shot through with the graces of his unfolding but eternal providence."

I just completed the chapter dedicated to St. Augustine's Confessions; it is marvelous.

[Emily Schatz · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me three years to read this book. It was worth it. Someday I would like to read it again.

Traces the concept of irony through various works of Christian literature, some classic and others less well known. The author is a renowned Dante scholar with a devout imagination and a gift for theological eloquence. You sort of have to be in both an analytical and meditative mood to make any progress, but the book is instructive and rewarding...has a way of lifting up your vision. Recommended.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of two millennia of literature, and the ironies (of power, of love, of time, of children) that speak of the great and joyous hope at the heart of the Christian faith.

[Jonathan]

None

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like a series of essays on different books and poems from the western canon. Some were better than others, but quite good as a whole, and a few parts were emotionally powerful.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my book of the year. No kidding.

[Jeremy]

Mentioned obliquely in Doug Wilson's God Rest Ye Merry (17).

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me a long time to get through, and I lost track of the early parts in keeping up with the later, but man is it good.