Abstract

Focusing on a 1628 Lenten sermon, this essay explores Donne’s handling of the complex problem of how we should conceive of time antecedent to the creation. Read in the light of Donne’s remarks elsewhere, and of those by St. Augustine, this sermon shows him considering pre-time time as an argument for the importance of vocation. Contemplation of the mystery of God’s activity before the creation yields a powerful idea of one’s life and calling as the surpassingly meaningful culmination of a vast process. Additionally, such contemplation helps Donne cope with the vagaries of his own life, especially his ties to Roman Catholicism, by contextualizing his own past-ness within the larger story of humanity’s sin and redemption.