UC Berkeley

John Donne's sermonizing ethos is a masterful creation, incorporating his individuality as poet and priest into a larger identity consonant with his interpretation of Christian doctrine. The role is also consistent with a dense and complicated style that has both troubled and fascinated readers through the centuries. This essay argues that Donne's ethos, while reflecting a penitential stance that has misled some readers, could have been fashioned to reveal his priestly view of Christ, whose image as "Delegate of the Trinity" extends beyond the Gospel into the whole of Scripture and catholic tradition.