Articles by Leland Ryken

he function of the literary imagination is to incarnate meaning in concrete images, characters, events, and settings rather than abstract or propositional arguments.  To use the formula of Dorothy Sayers, the imagination images forth its subject, and in turn it... continue

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the most important event in the history of English Bible translation.  In fact, the publication of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 was the most important event in the history... continue

The story of Shakespeare and the Bible is partly the story of Protestant English Bible translation in the sixteenth century. Shakespeare was the beneficiary of a movement in which English Reformers poured their energies into translating the Bible. In fact, English Bible translation in the sixteenth century galvanized a society in a manner that invites comparison with the building of cathedrals in the Catholic Middle Ages. The Protestant Reformation also created an edifice--an edifice of the Word. continue

The myth of the secular Shakespeare continues to cast a long shadow over most people's perception of Shakespeare's plays.  Until I inherited the Shakespeare course in my department halfway through my career, I assumed that despite certain Christian patterns and... continue