God's Act of Knowing: Henry Vaughan, Participatory Attention, and the Eschatalogical Restoration of the Creatures

Abstract: In Henry Vaughan's poem "The Book" a codex is experienced in terms of the creaturely origins of the materials from which it is produced. The speaker understands that each of these individual creatures will be restored to new life in the eschaton. The poem not only departs from contemporary eschatological thought by affirming the restoration of all individual creatures, but also by construing creatures in terms of God's act of knowing, loving, and restoring them rather than according to human utility. The poem models an orientation towards nonhuman creatures distinct from the period's prevailing ways of discussing and valuing nature.