Shakespeare's Sonnets and the Bible: A Spiritual Interpretation with Christian Sources

by Ira B. Zinman

Overview

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of William Shakespeare’s Sonnets. For centuries there has been a raging debate about whether or not Shakespeare was a spiritual person and the extent to which he used the Bible as a source and inspiration in his work. While Shakespeare’s plays have garnered much of the attention, discussions have seldom presented a complete exploration of his Sonnets. This book gives a detailed examination of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, identifying their underlying themes at the religious and scriptural levels of interpretation. Christian readers and admirers of Shakespeare will be fascinated to learn the extent to which the most widely read author in the English-speaking world relied upon the Bible as an inspiration for his work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935493150
Publisher:	World Wisdom
Publication date:	09/16/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	520
File size:	799 KB

About the Author

Ira B. Zinman is a writer, filmmaker, and independent scholar who specializes in the Biblical and spiritual elements in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. He has taught and lectured extensively on Shakespeare, recently presenting papers on Shakespeare’s Sonnets at the Ohio Shakespeare Conference. Mr. Zinman's research on the Biblical influences upon Shakespeare's work has culminated in the Fall 2009 book Shakespeare’s Sonnets and the Bible: A Spiritual Interpretation with Christian Sources.

HRH Charles The Prince of Wales is the heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom. The Prince is actively interested in traditional thought and its applications to the problems of the modern world. He is also the Patron of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Editorial Reviews

Given Stephen Greenblatt's attention to Shakespeare's spiritual depth in his biography Will in the World, interest in Shakespeare and religion seems only natural. Author Zinman, an attorney, produced the documentary film Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective, featuring British scholar of perennial philosophy Martin Lings. While Lings was noted for tracing Shakespeare's spirituality in the plays, Zinman went on to write this study of the sonnets from a spiritual perspective. Zinman includes all 154 sonnets, each followed by the sonnet's "Theme," a "Glossary" paraphrasing each quatrain, a "Commentary" on the sonnet's enduring spiritual message, and a set of "Biblical Passages Suggested By" the sonnet. Zinman's exposition shows a love of both the Bard and the biblical (King James, not Shakespeare's favored Geneva Bible) text, along with a creative sense of analogy and metaphor. However, perennial philosophy's predilection for finding universal spiritual truths that transcend time and location means that Shakespeare here is "Will out of the World," unrelated to either Elizabethan England or the investigations and insights of contemporary scholarship. VERDICT Better guides to the sonnet's message within Shakespeare's world are Shakespeare's Sonnets in the edition edited by Katherine Duncan-Jones, and Robert Matz's The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction.—Steve Young, McHenry Cty. Coll., Crystal Lake, IL

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