The ‘Method of Jesus’: Experience and the Moral Life in Matthew Arnold’s Poetic Theory of Criticism

Abstract

Argues Arnold’s writings on literature and religion must be viewed as different, complementary aspects of a unified interpretive enterprise. Claims Arnold develops in his criticism a holistic interpretation of meaning; religious experience and the poetic faculty are simply different ways, both incomplete, of explaining human experience. Offers a reading of Literature and Dogma that supports his thesis.