Macdonald, James Ross. “Calvinist Theology and ‘Country Divinity’ in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.” Studies in Philology, vol. 111, no. 4, 2014, pp. 821–844. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/sip.2014.0029.
Centering his essay in the context of religious upheaval in 16th century England, Macdonald argues that the A-text of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus fails to reconcile the divisive views of diabolical agency it sets up, while he interprets the B-text as an attempt to resolve the divergence in working to absolve the text, and devilish powers, from favoring Protestantism. First, Macdonald explicates the contrasting Calvinist belief of the diabolical agents as mental states/influencers with the physical threats made by characters such as Mephistopheles. Macdonald establishes that the A-text neither supports nor invalidates Calvinist theology through studying the ambiguity of incrimination instead of coercion that Faustus experiences, the lack of (explicit) preordination, and the obscure power that the divine and diabolical supposedly hold along with Faustus’s fear of the physical threat from devils that is divulged as illusionary. Lastly, Macdonald further develops the idea that the revisers of the B-text strive to purge the ambiguity of the A-text to protect the Protestant cause from the connotation of devilish favoritism by studying the antipope Bruno’s release causing chaos and strife on the Catholic figures.
-Hannah Nagy
