Christopher Baker (3)

Baker, professor on English at Armstrong Atlantic, is better at literature and literary criticism than he is at history and theology. I found numerous errors in the text and in the index. For example, he describes Puritanism, --Shakespeare's characters refer to them usually in a negative way--but Baker does not mention that the Puritans were strong critics of the theater and certainly would not be a segment of society that the Bard catered to! Baker does not grasp the essential of the Anabaptist faith and states that Quakers descended from that movement. He describes Montanism as an eschatological heresy rather than as a reaction again the formalizing trends in the early church. He places Tyndale in the discussions of the White Horse Inn and in the company of Luther.

Nevertheless, Baker is correct to point that one cannot understand Shakespeare without understanding that religion permeated the age in which he lived. For years, scholars have tried to establish Shakespeare's personal faith by studying his writings and Baker cites the studies without resolving the dilemma.… (mehr)