{"product_id":"george-herbert-and-the-business-of-practical-piety-nudging-towards-god-hardcover","title":"George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety: Nudging Towards God - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCeri Sullivan\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContemporary nudge theory points out that people make good choices over issues where they have had past experience of similar circumstances, where there is reliable, substantial, and relevant information about the situation, and where they will get prompt feedback about the effect of their decision. Yet none of these conditions apply to the most vital choice of action facing early modern Protestants: how can they be saved? In \u003cem\u003eGeorge Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety\u003c\/em\u003e, Ceri Sullivan uses nudge theory to show how practical divinity disregards the doleful conclusions of predestination--that salvation cannot be earned--to supply readers with suggestions on how to prepare to act, regardless of their final destiny. Such texts create cognitive niches to support cheerful, godly thought and action, in a way which is far from being despairing or compulsive. Their nudges were repeatedly put into practice by Herbert's friends, the Ferrars, who tried to form an ideal religious community at Little Gidding. These prescriptions and examples illustrate how George Herbert's \u003cem\u003eThe Temple\u003c\/em\u003e (1633) is a compendium of the techniques of choice architecture. Herbert's poems are full of the humour emerging from a life of faith which is willing to guard high ideals by low cunning, stooping to use the least little things to change a self.\u003cem\u003e George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety \u003c\/em\u003einitially calls on theories of the extended mind to ask what sort of minor physical and social structures scaffold decisions, then examines a selection of nudges used by Herbert: contracts with the self, building a mind, cleaning a heart, conversing with God, making to-do lists, and working on working well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eCeri Sullivan, \u003cem\u003eProfessor of English Literature, Cardiff University\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCeri Sullivan is Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University, and the author of several books about the literary features that structure early modern texts about religion, trade, bureaucracy, and rhetoric. She was educated at the University of Oxford, and was formerly a banking systems analyst in the City of London and an NGO worker in sub-Saharan Africa.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.8 x 8.8 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 24, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42150737576071,"sku":"9780198906810","price":153.9,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/d8f23983548d3ee341faf059afcaf843.webp?v=1733201879","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/george-herbert-and-the-business-of-practical-piety-nudging-towards-god-hardcover","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}