Abstract:John Donne engages the subject of natural theology in his “secular” poetry as well as his Anniversaries, Essayes in Divinity, sermons, and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, but this subject has received little critical attention. This essay places Donne in his early seventeenth-century context regarding natural theology before tracing his treatment of natural theology through his writings. Two conclusions can be drawn from this investigation: first, considering Donne biographically, while Donne shows a commitment to reading the “book of nature” throughout his career, his vocational turn in the years 1611–14 refocuses, reshapes, and intensifies that commitment. A skeptical and noncommittal attitude toward apprehension of the divine in the sensible world apparent in the Songs and Sonnets is replaced by a clearer and more hopeful tone in the Essayes, with Donne further developing his insights about the book of nature in his sermons and the Devotions. Second, I argue that Donne’s insights deserve to be included in serious studies of natural theology in seventeenth-century England, for Donne provides a modern poetic alternative to the way of reading the book of nature concurrently developed by Francis Bacon.

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“隐喻神”与自然之书：约翰·多恩自然神学

摘要：约翰·多恩（John Donne）在其“世俗”诗歌以及其纪念日，《神界随笔》，《布道》和《紧急场合的献身》中都涉及自然神学，但这一主题很少受到批评。本文将多恩放在关于自然神学的十七世纪初背景下，然后通过他的著作追溯他对自然神学的处理。从这次调查中可以得出两个结论：首先，从传记的角度考虑邓恩，尽管他表现出在整个职业生涯中都致力于阅读“自然之书”的承诺，但他在1611至14年间的职业转变重新聚焦，重塑并强化了这一承诺。在《歌曲和十四行诗》中明显的对理性世界中的神的理解持怀疑态度和不置可否的态度被《杂文》中更清晰，更充满希望的语调所取代，唐恩在布道和《献身》中进一步发展了对自然之书的见解。 。其次，我认为在17世纪的英格兰，对自然神学的认真研究中应该包含多恩的见解，因为多恩为阅读弗朗西斯·培根同时开发的《自然》的方式提供了一种现代的诗意替代。