Christina Rossetti’s Feminist Theology pp 57-84 | Cite as
Called to Be Saints and Seek and Find
Abstract
Rossetti’s next work of devotional prose, Called to Be Saints, although not published until 1881 was written before 1876, following close on the heels of Annus Domini. There is much similarity in their underlying theological understanding, and in it we can see Rossetti continue to construct her own theological models. As a development of the naming activity of the earlier volume, Rossetti takes biblical characters for development, choosing ‘the nineteen saints commemorated by name in our Book of Common Prayer, with the Holy Innocents neither named nor numbered, with St. Michael and his cloud of All Angels, with All Saints’ (from the section entitled ‘The Key to my Book’, p. xiii). With due regard for the inspired text and its sacred associations, which flow in and out through the margins of the text as a mirror to her discourse, Rossetti paints a portrait of Christ’s friends as social beings: living, loving, teaching and, ultimately, reversing the process of suffering and death through identification with the life-giving power of Christ.
Keywords
Natural World Christian Theology Sacred Object Feminist Theology Divine WisdomPreview
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Notes
- 12.A.H. Harrison, Christina Rossetti in Context (Brighton: Harvester Press, 1988), p. 31.Google Scholar
- 13.J. Ruskin, Modem Painters, 5 vols (London: George Allen, 1900), vol. I, p. 30.Google Scholar
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