SOURCE: Silver, Victoria. “Liberal Theology and Sir Thomas Browne's ‘Soft and Flexible’ Discourse.” English Literary Renaissance 20, no. 1 (winter 1990): 69-105.

In the following essay, Silver offers a detailed analysis of Browne's Religio Medici in response to previous critical analyses of the work, including its famed dismissal by Stanley Fish. Silver admits that while she dismisses Fish's arguments against Browne in general, she agrees with the critic when he states that Browne is often defended to the extreme by his admirers, who fail to recognize the conservative and often “luscious” nature of Browne's writing.

Near the end of her fine and appreciative article on the Religio Medici, Anne Drury Hall remarks that “It has become almost a topos of Renaissance criticism to disparage Browne's ease in favor of Donne's toughness.” And in characterizing that posture, it is primarily Stanley Fish to whom she alludes: “Browne does not, it is argued...