Robert G. Hunter on Shakespeare's testing of theology instead of evangelizing

 “Shakespeare is not treating us
to an imaginative presentation of theology.
He is testing theology with his imagination
and using theology for his artistic purpose.”
(105)

- Robert G. Hunter
“Shakespeare and the Mystery of God’s Judgments” (1976)

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This is one of my favorite quotes from this book, and sums up an important perspective.

It contrasts with the assumption by some scholars such as Charles Wordsworth (1864) - a position strongly disliked by many others - that Shakespeare used biblical references and religious themes to demonstrate and evangelize for the Christian faith.

Other scholars such as Maurice Hunt (Shakespeare's Religious Allusiveness: Its Play and Tolerance) sometimes assume biblical references might be sorted into binary opposition between apparent Protestant and Catholic references, perhaps proving Shakespeare was one or the other, or that he at least conformed to the Protestant inclinations of his time.

But "testing theology with his imagination" is a different thing altogether, and similar to what Tom Bishop (Shakespeare and the Theatre of Wonder) has noticed in Richard II, when Richard considers his competing thoughts:

RICHARD:
The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermixed
With scruples, and do set the word itself
Against the word, as thus: “Come, little ones,”
And then again,
“It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle’s eye.”
(5.5.11-17)

This is, as Hunter says, "testing theology with his imagination and using theology for his artistic purpose.”

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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

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