Truth and Method: Error and Discovery in The Temple

What is it about?

This chapter explains Herbert’s fascination with the experience of being in error in the context of St. Augustine’s concept of “blessed failing.” Like Augustine, Herbert felt that the experience of holy mystery is often concomitant with the experience of being in error, just as the act of reading scripture is coincident with misreading it. Yet, Herbert’s view of the role that error plays in processes of scriptural understanding was also informed by Francis Bacon. Having translated Bacon, Herbert developed a clear understanding of the different role error plays in Bacon’s and Aristotle’s theories of discovery. This awareness powerfully animates major poems in The Temple, especially those concerned with the imitation of Christ and the composition of true poetry.

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