Writing Assignment: Batter My Heart By Jones Donne

Essay Assignment: Batter my Heart By Jones Donne
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Essay Assignment: Batter my Heart By Jones Donne
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were religious turmoil in Europe and Britain, thousands of people died for their religious faiths. Theological differences between the Protestants and Catholics were a matter of life and death (Fessenden, Radel & Zaborowska, 2014). England had a long history of religious conflicts after the Act of supremacy in 1534-outlawed Roman Catholicism, Catholics were persecuted, but Catholicism was restored later by King Henry's daughter Mary. Nevertheless, her predecessor later restored the Protestant church(Fessenden, Radel & Zaborowska, 2014).
Having experienced the religious tension, Donne was from a Catholic family, his uncle was sentenced to death and his brother died in prison for helping the Roman Catholics (Fessenden, Radel & Zaborowska, 2014). All these drove him to write religious themes, presenting historical conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants. Batter my Heart is one of the most read sonnets written by Jones Donne presents an afflicted love for God, he is hurt because he feels he is deviating from the holy path to a more sinful path arguing that God needs to ravish his body and make him virtuous (Hillier, 2016). Donne's sonnets were more visible after becoming a priest in 1615 and are deeply religious and were known to have accelerated historical tension between Catholics and Protestants (Hillier, 2016).
One of the key differences that reflect the historical tension between Catholics and Protestants in his poems is when he compared the business of daily life to the west to the place of Christ sacrifice (Fessenden, Radel & Zaborowska, 2014). Donne mediates on the path to salvation where protestant and Catholics, mostly disagreed on church ritual, faith or grace contributes to salvation. His position presents some detail, which is different from the Catholics. According to the poem, the act of penance or confession, pilgrimage, the rosary and attending church services emphasizing on private reflection rather than shared reflection as purported by Catholics (Hillier,2016). He argues that the emphasis on saving oneself by means of good works according to the Article XI is not enough. Righteousness before God is achieved by faith and believing in God, not from our own, work and deserving's (Hillier, 2016).
Another notable tension between Catholics and protestant is the forced salvation upon humans, the doctrine known as "irresistible grace” is evident in Donne's poem that is a violent and painful push to salvation upon sinners (Fessenden, Radel & Zaborowska, 2014). Using the metaphor of whipping, he states that God beating grace into the sinner back until the sinner is worthy to turn east to face God presents an unorthodox way of viewing salvation differently from the Catholic teachings (Fessenden, Radel & Zaborowska, 2014). The portrayal of his theological position that causes religious tension between Catholic and Protestants, in the Batter my heart is the three people'd God. He states that
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow m...