The Dove and the Flame
Elfric, Abbot of Eynsham in the reign of Æthelred the Unready, reflects on two appearances of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
990-994
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Elfric, Abbot of Eynsham in the reign of Æthelred the Unready, reflects on two appearances of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
990-994
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Elfric was Abbot of Eynsham near Oxford during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Here, he reflects on the Baptism of Christ and on Pentecost, explaining why the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus as a dove, but on the Apostles as tongues of fire.
translated and abridged
WHY did the Holy Ghost come in the form of fire over the Apostles, but over Christ in the likeness of a dove?
Because Christ in his humanity was meek and harmless.
He did not chide, or raise his voice among men, or stir up strife, nor was he inclined to bitterness; but lived a life of meekness and true love.
The Holy Ghost appeared in two forms, in a dove’s and in that of fire, for the qualities that every Christian man shall have: that is, to have the meekness of the dove and to be without bitterness, and to burn for love of God as with fire.
And let the fire regulate the meekness, that he be not too slack; and let the meekness regulate the fire, that it be not too fierce. Let us have both the innocence of the dove and the heat of the fire, that we ever shine in meekness, and burn with the love of God.
translated and abridged
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.