New Books Network Kevin Hart, "Lands of Likeness: For a Poetics of Contemplation" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
Feb 5, 2026
Kevin Hart, Jo Rae Wright University Distinguished Professor at Duke Divinity School and author on theology, phenomenology, and literature, explores contemplation as a way of reading and living. He traces contemplative roots from Augustine to Husserl and Romantic poets. He links poetry, phenomenology, and slow reading to disciplined practices that reveal fresh perception and the particularity of experience.
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Gifford Lectures Invitation Story
- Kevin Hart recounts receiving the Gifford Lectures invitation in bed at 5 or 6 a.m. and going back to sleep for an hour before realizing the task ahead.
- He then explains choosing contemplation and poetry as a natural-theology angle for the lectures.
Contemplation Vs. Suspicion
- Hart proposes a 'hermeneutic of contemplation' as an alternative to the academy's hermeneutics of suspicion.
- Contemplation opens texts to multiple possibilities rather than searching for concealed oppressive meanings.
Three Modes Of Poetic Attention
- Hart distinguishes three literary modes: consideration, contemplation, and fascination, each with different aims and effects.
- Consideration attends to concrete natural particulars while contemplation seeks openness and freedom of vision.
