블레이크의 시에 있어서 용서의 의미

Abstract

The natural philosophes of the Age of Reason had ever mounted severe iconoclastic attacks on the Bible and Christianity, but their influence was limited in England. Tom Paine, however, came up with a convincing argument against the Bible, denouncing the central Christian doctrine of the Atonement as an anomaly to sanctify human sacrifice. He also rejected Resurrection, Jesus’s miracles, and his immaculate conception by Mary. After his grand objection, Blake was left with only shreds of the Bible littered around him. To regain these shreds and revitalize them into intact Christian Mythus was the subject of his later prophetic poems. It was forgiveness that served as a keystone in his brave enterprise. This paper is an attempt to shed light on the meaning of forgiveness from this perspective. So it will elucidate how Blake turned to the idea of forgiveness around 1800 and in what way it lived up to his expectation. The act of forgiveness is an intra- psychic process that implies the subduing of the accusing, selfish spectre. In the final analysis, it is almost one and the same thing with self-annihilation the poet incessantly stressed in his later years. It also underlies friendship and brotherhood. In this respect, forgiveness of sin was the most effective concept to fight the deists’ criticism on the vindictive God.