SOURCE: A review of The Living Temple, in Journal of English and German Philology, Vol. 78, No. 2, April, 1979, pp. 255-58.

In the following review, Mollenkott provides an overview of Fish's critical argument in The Living Temple and discusses paradoxical and controversial aspects of his assertions.

If Surprised by Sin set off among certain Miltonists the reaction of Fish-baiting, and Self-Consuming Artifacts widened the scope of that reaction, The Living Temple: George Herbert and Catechizing will probably draw even more seventeenth-century critics into the current of swimming against the Fish. The reasons are not difficult to discern: Stanley Fish writes with clarity and strength, and with a certain absoluteness of tone that is bound to stir up controversy. The serenely confident subtitle of his article in the George Herbert Journal (Fall, 1977) is a case in point: “The Mystery of The Temple Finally Explained.” Furthermore, Fish is never trivial. He confronts...