Douglas Hedley Coleridge, Philosophy and Religion: Aids to Reflection and the Mirror of the Spirit. (Book reviews).

Douglas Hedley Coleridge, Philosophy and Religion: Aids to Reflection and the Mirror of the Spirit. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). [pounds sterling]40.00/$64.95 (Hbk). ISBN 0 521 77035 1.

The main thesis of this book is quickly stated: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's relationship to German transcendental philosophy was not simply derivative; rather he used it as a resource to reinvigorate a British tradition of Christian Platonism. This is argued in relation to Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, although there is no sustained reading of that fascinating text, but rather a thematic interpretation, set against the background of the transcendental philosophers and the Christian Neoplatonist tradition. Throughout, Dr Hedley aims both to uncover and display the particular character of Coleridge's Christian Platonism and (as a minor theme) to recommend Christian (Cambridge) Platonism as a viable option today. The rehabilitation of Coleridge as a creative philosopher is wholly convincing; the exposition of his philosophy thorough and erudite; and the championing of the presently unfashionable Christian Platonist tradition sufficiently well argued as to demand notice.

The book has its problems also, of course. Dr Hedley's prose is not always as clear as it is scholarly, and I am sure that readers not already familiar with the territory will, from time to time, find themselves simply lost in the forests of argument and authority that compose the long chapters. The sheer breadth of erudition on display requires more control than it is given, as quotations which span the centuries jostle together without an adequate apparatus to help the reader untangle them. Again, Hedley is quite prepared to follow interesting side issues, but the signposting of the byways and …