Cooper - The Near and Distant God: Poetry, Idealism and Religious Thought from Holderlin to Eliot

This book was made possible through the generosity of numerous individuals and institutions. I would firstly like to thank Nicholas Boyle, who supervised the doctoral thesis on which this book is based, for so readily and inspirationally sharing his great learning, insight and scholarly expertise, for providing encouragement and constructive criticism at every stage, and for teaching me how to write about the things I wanted to write about. My thanks are also due to the examiners of the thesis, Michael Minden and Charlie Louth, for their suggestions and support, and to Stephen Fennell, who introduced me to Hlderlin as an undergraduate. During the publication process Graham Nelson, Managing Editor of Legenda, was always ready with help and useful advice, and Nigel Hope provided superbly attentive copy-editing. My doctoral research was made possible financially by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, by the Tiarks German Fund, by the Newton Trust and by Christ's College, Cambridge. The Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies provided me with a generous grant to assist with publication. I would like especially to thank the Master and Fellows of Selwyn College, Cambridge, for electing me to a Research Fellowship during which I was able to prepare the manuscript for publication amid extremely congenial surroundings.

I owe considerable thanks to many friends whom I have come to know during the years spent on this project, and some to whom my debt goes back even further. In the latter category I mention especially Chris Coles for friendship of more than twenty years' standing, Ed Cooke for untold hours of tea and wisdom, and Eva Rdler for helping me more than I had any right to expect. In the former category I thank for their inspiration, assistance and support David Larkin, Bernhard Malkmus and Margaret Rose. Regina Sachers, there for me in everything, stands in a category of just one.

My debt to my family is inexpressible: to my brother, Paul, and sister, Sally, and most of all to our parents, Mary and Tony Cooper. I cannot say what their love means to me, only that it made everything possible, and that it deeply informs the argument which now follows. I dedicate this book to them.

The author is happy to acknowledge permission to quote from the following sources:

Extracts from T. S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays, Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley , To Criticize the Critic, After Strange Gods, On Poetry and Poets, Selected Prose, ed. by Frank Kermode, lecture excerpted in F. O. Matthiessen, The Achievement of T. S. Eliot, drafts of poems in Helen Gardner, The Composition of 'Four Quartets', and from Seamus Heaney, 'Clearances VII', in Opened Ground, reproduced with permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. Excerpt from 'Burnt Norton' in Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot, copyright 1936 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and renewed 1964 by T. S. Eliot, reprinted by permission of the publisher. Excerpt from 'Little Gidding' in Four Quartets, copyright 1942 by T. S. Eliot and renewed 1970 by Esme Valerie Eliot, reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Excerpt from After Strange Gods: A Primer of Modern Heresy by T. S. Eliot, copyright 1934 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and renewed 1962 by T. S. Eliot, reprinted by permission of the publisher. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC: excerpt from To Criticize the Critic by T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1965 by T. S. Eliot. Copyright renewed 1993 by Valerie Eliot. Excerpt from On Poetry and Poets by T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1957 by T. S. Eliot. Copyright renewed 1985 by Valerie Eliot. Excerpt from Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley by T. S. Eliot. Excerpt from 'Clearances VII' from Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996 by Samus Heaney. Copyright 1998 by Seamus Heaney. Immanuel Kant, Religion and Rational Theology, edited and translated by Allen W. Wood, George di Giovanni, Cambridge University Press, 1996 and Nietzsche: 'The Anti-Christ', 'Ecce Homo', 'Twilight of the Idols', edited by Aaron Ridley, Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman, Cambridge University Press, 2005, reproduced with permission. Extracts from Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and No One by Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, R. J. Hollingdale, 1961, 1969, reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.