George Herbert's approach to God: The faith and spirituality of a country priest

DOCTRINE

The Mediation of Language

Now that we have considered the path along which Herbert approaches knowledge of God, we shall try to discover something of the God whom he approaches. What sort of understanding of God, the created world, humanity, Christ, redemption, and grace is held by someone whose spirituality grows out of the liturgical worship of the Book of Common Prayer?

First, we should note that Herbert would have been completely baffled by the "experientialist" disjunction between "experience" and "interpretation." While he recognized that there could be an intellectual belief without lived-out implications, he would have found incomprehensible the notion that "experience" was in some way logically or conceptually prior to "doctrine" or "practices." Rather, the crucial assumption of his poetry and prose is that doctrine and practices combine inextricably to change lives. "Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one / When they combine and mingle, bring / A strong regard and awe . . ." ("The Windows," 11. 11-3). The words by which we approach God in Scripture, the liturgy, prayer, and preaching point beyond themselves to allow us to participate in the drama of salvation. The words themselves are not the reality, but we have no access to the reality apart from the words. So Herbert compares the inadequate words of the preacher to stained-glass windows (11. 1-5):

Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?

He is a brittle crazy glass:

Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford

This glorious and transcendent place,

To be a window, through thy grace.

Words have a sacramental quality for Herbert. They cannot capture the reality to which they point, yet they are channels through which God communicates grace to us. With this in mind, let us see how Herbert's spirituality is formed by his theology.

Creation

Consistent with Anglican tradition, Herbert places a high value on creation. His view has medieval antecedents. According to Herbert, all reality participates in the "great chain of being" that leads from inanimate matter through plants, animals, human beings, and angels, finally culminating in the God on whom all creatures depend for their existence and preservation ("Providence," 11. 61-2, 65-6, 69-72):

Each creature hath a wisdom for his good.

The pigeons feed their tender off-spring . . . .

Bees work for man; and yet they never bruise

Their master's flower . . . .

Sheep eat the grass, and dung the ground for more:

Trees after bearing drop their leaves for soil:

Springs vent their streams, and by expense get store:

Clouds cool by heat, and baths by cooling boil. And God exercises providence over all. The parson has to keep in mind the tendency of country people to forget providence and to think that all things have a merely natural course. Country people simply assume that, if they properly work their land, they will have crops. The pastor "labours to reduce them to see God's hand in all things, and to believe, that things are not set in such an inevitable order, but that God often changeth it according as he sees fit, either for reward or punishment." It is easy to take the natural order of the world for granted, to become complacent, and to forget that creation depends on its maker for sustenance. "Man would sit down at this world. God bids him sell it, and purchase a better" (Country Parson, ch. 30).