New Books Network Podcast Summary

Episode: Kevin Hart, "Lands of Likeness: For a Poetics of Contemplation" (University of Chicago Press, 2023)
Date: February 5, 2026
Host: New Books
Guest: Professor Kevin Hart

Overview

This episode features a rich conversation with Professor Kevin Hart, renowned theologian, poet, and philosopher, about his latest book Lands of Likeness: For a Poetics of Contemplation. The book, which emerged from Hart's recent Gifford Lectures, explores the concept of contemplation across theology, philosophy, and poetry, tracing its evolution from ancient and Christian traditions to modern secular poetry. Hart proposes a “poetics of contemplation,” contrasting it with more suspicious modern modes of reading, and examines how contemplation operates across disciplines, from systematic theology and phenomenology to poetic creation and reception.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Genesis of the Book and the Gifford Lectures

• Origin and Meaning of the Title
  • Hart explains that the Gifford Lectures, focused on natural theology, inspired him to explore contemplation not just within religious frameworks but extend it into poetry, a medium densely woven with metaphors and "lands of likeness."
  • The phrase is rooted in Ashard of St. Victor’s homily, contrasting Augustine’s “land of unlikeness” with the aspirational “lands of likeness” aspired to in Christ (03:03–07:30).
  • Quote: “Each poem is itself a land of likeness. So I managed to twin the contemplative element in poetry with the poetics of it.” (Prof. Hart, 07:08)

2. Contemplation, Suspicion, and Interpretation

• The Hermeneutics of Suspicion vs. Contemplation
  • Hart critiques the dominant “hermeneutics of suspicion” (based on Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud), which treat all texts as potentially deceptive and ideologically coded.
  • Proposes a counter-version—“hermeneutics of contemplation”—drawing on Coleridge, Schopenhauer, and Husserl. Rather than digging for hidden kernels, this approach attends openly to the presence and potentiality within the text.
  • Quote: “I tried to oppose the hermeneutic of suspicion with what I called the hermeneutic of contemplation.” (Prof. Hart, 09:19)
  • “Contemplation is an opening to something where there’s an experience of freedom... that’s not really the case with fascination.” (Prof. Hart, 12:07)

3. Consideration, Fascination, & Phenomenology

• Varieties of Modern Poetic Attitude
  • Hart distinguishes between “contemplation,” “consideration,” and “fascination” in poetry.
  • “Consideration” (from Bernard of Clairvaux) is a form of reflective concern, especially prevalent in Romantic poetry, and tends toward attentiveness to the particulars of the natural world (14:15–16:22).
  • “Fascination” is subtly different—more akin to being captivated and immobilized rather than the liberating openness of contemplation.
• Phenomenology’s Contemplative Orientation
  • Hart elaborates on Husserl’s “phenomenological attitude” as contemplative at its core, inviting us to bracket preconceptions (“epoché”) and see the world freshly (23:01–28:45).
  • Phenomenologists and poets are “kin,” both practicing acts of reduction and imaginative variation, but the poet typically remains on a psychological level, the philosopher extends this epistemically (23:50).
  • Quote: “The metaphilosophy of Husserl is contemplation.” (Prof. Hart, 24:09)

4. Poetry, Contemplation, and the World

• Modern Poetic Case Studies
  • Hart examines poets such as Wallace Stevens, Gerard Manley Hopkins, AR Ammons, and Geoffrey Hill.
  • Poets function as contemplatives in a secular mode, seeking, as in Ammons’s “Sphere,” to “say everything” about a topic—an act parallel to contemplative striving in mysticism (18:24–21:09).
  • Poetry, when written and read contemplatively, enables movement “from the pregiven to the given” (32:05–34:11).
  • Quote: “What phenomenology asks us to do, and what I think good poetry asks us to do, is to go from the pregiven to the given—to get to a stage where we can receive the world, not in pregiven categories, so we can see it freshly.” (Prof. Hart, 32:32)
• Spiritual Discipline and Asceticism
  • Contemplative reading, poetic creation, and theological practice all require forms of ascetic discipline—an “asceticism” or “spiritual exercise” that takes us from habitual seeing (“the natural attitude”) into more open, receptive modes (34:11–34:46).

5. Contemplation in Theology vs. Argument

• Contemplation vs. Apologetics

  • Hart argues that while apologetics and analytic philosophy have their place in seeking proofs for God, true certitude arises from the “practice of contemplation,” where God acts upon the soul in prayer (35:38–38:18).
  • Quote: “Certitude about God… comes in and through the act of practical prayer, not in the act of proof. So modernity has flipped that and made prayer utterly subjective, but that’s not generally what Christianity has argued.” (Prof. Hart, 37:20)

• The Mixed Life: Contemplative, Active, or Both?

  • Hart traces the evolution of “the contemplative life” (theoria) in Christian and Greco-Roman traditions, highlighting the ideal of the mixed life (combining contemplation and action) as articulated post-13th century, especially by Aquinas (39:05–43:32).

6. Exit, Return, and Poetic Particularity

• Neoplatonic Structures & Modern Plurality
  • Classical theology often describes ascent from multiplicity to unity (exit-return, ascent-descent), but much modern poetry is immersed in “the plural,” attending to the proliferation of distinct things (43:30–45:26).
  • Hart’s reading of Geoffrey Hill’s long poem on Charles Péguy illustrates a contemplative, non-reductive way to do justice to individual complexity — “let us contemplate the radical soul” (47:30–48:13).

7. Poems as Events, Templum, and Birds

• The Evental Nature of Poems
  • Hart sees poems as “events” rather than fixed objects—their meaning unfolds with each reading, depending on the reader’s time and life-stage (50:36–52:16).
  • Quote: “The best poems... are still thinking on the page.” (Prof. Hart, 50:40)
• The Poem as Templum
  • Drawing an analogy from ancient Roman augury, he considers the poem as a “templum”—a structure for receptivity, a rectangle come down from the sky, “a little land of likeness” (55:43–58:05).

8. Augustine’s Evening and Morning Knowledge

• World and Kingdom; Two Modes of Knowing
  • Hart recounts Augustine’s contrast between “evening knowledge” (scientific, analytic understanding) and “morning knowledge” (contemplative, suffused with love)—a model for moving from the world to the kingdom, or from a restricted to an open gaze (58:17–61:23).
  • Quote: “We can see different modalities of that same shift, which is a kind of conversion of the gaze.” (Prof. Hart, 60:22)

9. Atheist Contemplation and Fascination

• Negative Contemplation
  • Modern atheists (Heidegger, Blanchot, Derrida) develop a mode akin to contemplation but often marked by “fascination” with nothingness or absence, rather than a positive openness to being (61:58–64:54).

10. Sacraments, Grace, and Contemplation

• Contemplative Prayer and the Catholic Tradition
  • Hart addresses the Catholic doctrine that true contemplative union with God requires grace, typically mediated by the sacraments.
  • The Church has historically been ambivalent about purely contemplative (especially non-clerical, lay, or female) practitioners due to concerns over bypassing ecclesiastical structures (66:11–69:37).

11. The Individual, History, and Christ

• Particularity and Redemption
  • Attention to the singular—both in the world and exemplified in the person of Christ—grounds the work of contemplation and poetic apprehension.
  • The Christian tradition sees in Christ a transformative singularity that both exemplifies and redeems the proliferation and particularity of existence (69:37–73:08).

12. The Phenomenology of Christ

• Jesus as Phenomenologist
  • In his forthcoming work, Hart investigates how Christ in the Gospels practices a phenomenology: suspending the “natural attitude” through parables and teaching, inviting a conversion of perspective akin to philosophical reduction (73:08–73:40).
  • Quote: “Throughout the Gospels we’re finding a kind of proto-phenomenological language and phenomenological discourse…” (Prof. Hart, 73:10)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Each poem is itself a land of likeness.” – Prof. Hart (07:08)
• “I tried to oppose the hermeneutic of suspicion with what I called the hermeneutic of contemplation.” – Prof. Hart (09:19)
• “Contemplation is an opening to something where there’s an experience of freedom... that’s not really the case with fascination.” – Prof. Hart (12:07)
• “The metaphilosophy of Husserl is contemplation.” – Prof. Hart (24:09)
• “Certitude about God… comes in and through the act of practical prayer, not in the act of proof.” – Prof. Hart (37:20)
• “The best poems... are still thinking on the page.” – Prof. Hart (50:40)
• “We can see different modalities of that same shift, which is a kind of conversion of the gaze.” – Prof. Hart (60:22)
• “Throughout the Gospels we’re finding a kind of proto-phenomenological language and phenomenological discourse…” – Prof. Hart (73:10)

Key Timestamps for Major Topics

• 03:03–07:30: Genesis of Lands of Likeness, Gifford Lectures, and origin of the title.
• 09:19–13:04: Hermeneutics of suspicion vs. contemplation.
• 14:15–18:24: Consideration, fascination, and attunement in poetry.
• 23:01–28:45: Husserl, phenomenology, and contemplation.
• 32:05–34:46: Poetic practice as an act of reduction and spiritual exercise.
• 35:38–39:46: Contemplation vs. apologetics and proofs.
• 43:30–45:26: Plurality in poetry and theological ascent/descent.
• 50:36–52:16: Poems as events and the ongoing life of meaning.
• 55:43–58:05: The poem as templum, birds as augury.
• 58:17–61:23: Augustine on evening and morning knowledge.
• 61:58–64:54: Atheistic fascination and negative contemplation.
• 66:11–69:37: Catholic tradition, contemplation, sacraments.
• 72:08–73:40: Phenomenology of Christ.

Final Notes

The conversation illuminates Professor Hart’s interdisciplinary approach, blending theology, philosophy, phenomenology, and poetry into a nuanced account of contemplation. He shows that contemplation is not merely an esoteric or religious exercise but a versatile disposition central to profound engagement across domains—one which opens possibility, resists reduction, and fosters both intellectual and spiritual growth.

Host’s Closing:
“Kevin Hart, thank you so much for meeting with us today.” (73:40)

Professor Hart:
“My pleasure, absolutely. Thank you.” (73:42)