John Donne"s Holy Sonnets, 19 divine poems, take the forms of prayer, meditation, argument and dialogue in which the poet makes a clean breast of his spiritual conflict and struggle with God, the silent auditor. The Holy Sonnets, an individual"s spiritual diary conveyed in private and confessional language, dramatize the whole cycle of human salvation: justification, sanctification and glorification. The Holy Sonnets suggest no means of redemption for non-Christians. Rather, they are concerned with the difficult process of sanctification: when those who are born again follow and imitate Christ. When one repents and accepts Christ as his personal Saviour, he is deemed innocent and righteous at once. This is the justification. But he faces a long journey to practice what the Bible prescribes. This is the sanctification that continues until heaven, the glorification and culmination of his redemption. Donne"s personal battle against evil, flesh and the world as portrayed by the Holy Sonnets are so conscientious, unswerving, and evangelical that readers on the same track, mirroring themselves, are uncomparably challenged, encouraged and even rewarded for reading them.
John Donne"s Holy Sonnets, 19 divine poems, take the forms of prayer, meditation, argument and dialogue in which the poet makes a clean breast of his spiritual conflict and struggle with God, the silent auditor. The Holy Sonnets, an individual"s spiritual diary conveyed in private and confessional language, dramatize the whole cycle of human salvation: justification, sanctification and glorification. The Holy Sonnets suggest no means of redemption for non-Christians. Rather, they are concerned with the difficult process of sanctification: when those who are born again follow and imitate Christ. When one repents and accepts Christ as his personal Saviour, he is deemed innocent and righteous at once. This is the justification. But he faces a long journey to practice what the Bible prescribes. This is the sanctification that continues until heaven, the glorification and culmination of his redemption. Donne"s personal battle against evil, flesh and the world as portrayed by the Holy Sonnets are so conscientious, unswerving, and evangelical that readers on the same track, mirroring themselves, are uncomparably challenged, encouraged and even rewarded for reading them.
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