Blake would have scorned the idea of talking about Theology, which meant less than nothing to his artistic creations. However theologians may also find Blake of interest.
Systematizing was anathema to him; nevertheless he created a system of his own, and we may properly organize it in terms of theological ideas. We might begin our analysis with the theological dimension of the four elements of his myth:
Creation and Fall
The Biblical account of Creation (one of the most commonly familiar portions of the Bible) tell us that God created the World, and Man in six days and rested on the seventh. Blake wrote a number of parodies of that. Perhaps the most systematic of his accounts of Creation can be found in what might be called the first book of his 'Bible of Hell', The Book of Urizen. Creation had occurred when Albion retreated from Eternity to 'Beulah', and not just Creation, but the Fall as well.
Urizen, Blake's demiurge sets out to give fallen properties to Man in seven ages of a state of dismal woe" (Erdman 75-76). This is in considerable contrast to Genesis Three where the serpent uses his evil methods to seduce Eve (and then Adam) to choose the Way of the World rather than the Way of God.
In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake chose to identify himself and John Milton as well with 'the devils party'. In that early work Blake saw the devil as a form of active energy contrasting with the passive angels. (In later years his satanic theology moved closer to the conventional mode.)
Redemption
The Eternal
No comments:
Post a Comment