Alexander Pope's Catholic Vision “Slave to No Sect”

This lively, accessible book reveals the character - and timeliness - of Alexander Pope's thinking and art. G. Douglas Atkins focuses on the religious position of a poet who would not abandon the Roman Catholic Church. In our own highly partisan culture, such a position offers an important example. Bringing his expertise in religion and literature to bear, Atkins establishes that Pope was, as an anti-sectarian, not a Deist but a Catholic, a layman, and essayist. Through comparison with John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, and T.E. Eliot, this study sheds new light on 'The Universal Prayer,' 'An Essay on Criticism,' Moral Essays, and the four-part Dunciad. Ultimately, Pope emerges as a religious poet of the first rank.

G. Douglas Atkins is Professor of English at the University of Kansas, USA, where he has taught for 43 years. He has won three awards for outstanding teaching, directed the graduate program at the University of Kansas for 18 years, and is the author of 15 books and 3 edited collections.

Preface
Introduction: Toward Deconfining Pope
1. 'So vast is Art, so narrow Human Wit': Subordinating Part to Whole in An Essay on Criticism
2. 'Slave to No Sect': From Part to Whole
3. Avoiding Deism's 'High Priori Road': A Catholic Sensibility and a Layman's Faith
4. A Emergent Conclusion
Bibliography