The Word Made Flesh Made Word: The Failure and Redemption of Metaphor in Edward Taylor's Christographia

David G. Miller

yan, 1995 · Susquehanna University Press

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Edward Taylor's dilemma as Puritan, preacher, and poet was to discover a way in human language to express the ineffable Divine. This first book-length study of Edward Taylor's prose suggests that Taylor's use of language illustrates the very theological truths he struggled with as a minister and a writer. Taylor's poetic metaphors have long been noted for their vitality and linguistic absurdity. This penetrating study of Taylor's Christographia sermons concludes that Taylor intentionally forces his types and metaphors into failure to illustrate how necessary it is for the incarnate Christ to redeem both the medium and the messenger. The author places Taylor in historical, theological, and stylistic contexts and then looks at how both types and metaphors used by Taylor tend to follow the pattern of establishment, failure, and redemption. By focusing on the typological images of Moses, David, and the Jewish religious ceremonies, for example, Taylor shows how such images both point toward Christ and obscure the truth of Christ. By using metaphorical images of light, plants, and "living buildings," Taylor attempts to paint a portrait of Christ for his congregation, all the while insisting that human language can never illustrate the Divine.