A Theological and Literary Reading of Gerard Manley Hopkins's “God's Grandeur”

Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “God’s Grandeur” presents a poetic theology of general revelation, blending Scriptural allusion with sacramental language to affirm divine presence in creation. This paper explores Hopkins’s engagement with biblical themes, Duns Scotus’s metaphysics, and the spiritual critique of industrial modernity. Through close reading and theological reflection, the study demonstrates how Hopkins's sonnet functions as both a lament over human estrangement and a doxological affirmation of the Holy Spirit’s enduring work in all Creation. Keywords: Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur, theology and literature, general revelation, sacramental poetry, Duns Scotus, creation, Trinitarian theology, industrialization, Holy Spirit DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.28828250