A sterling literary-historian and lay
theologian writes:
The
excellent lyric ‘All my lufe leif me not’ … belongs to a large class [of] ‘anti-parodies’
(if I may coin a most necessary word):
the conversion of popular and secular songs to devout purposes.
-- C.S.
Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (1944), p. 112
To the man on the Clapham omnibus, this
coinage may not seem “most
necessary”; you require long
schooling to harmonize with that need.
The notion of anti-parody is in line with Lewis’s
special use of baptize, whereby a
natural (pagan) trait, such as love of nature or appreciation for music, may be said to be “baptized” once such feelings are viewed on a
higher plane, from a Christian perspective.
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