The Great Exemplar by Jeremy Taylor
"The Great Exemplar" by Jeremy Taylor is a comprehensive exploration of the life of Jesus Christ, presented as a blend of meditation, prayer, and biographical narrative. Written during a period of national upheaval in the 17th century, this extensive work aims to define true Christian devotion and provide a model for holy living grounded in Christian principles. Taylor's narrative is structured into short sections that include reflections and prayers, emphasizing his intent to instruct and guide readers in their spiritual journeys. The text traces key events in Jesus’ life, from the Annunciation to the Ascension, while incorporating insights from various historical and theological sources.
Taylor's style is characterized by vivid imagery and eloquent prose, enhancing the emotional weight of the events he recounts. He explores significant themes such as the divinity of Christ, the importance of faith and purity, and the profound implications of Jesus' suffering and resurrection. Throughout the work, Taylor focuses on fostering a deep understanding of Christian principles rather than engaging in doctrinal disputes. Ultimately, "The Great Exemplar" serves as both a devotional guide and a historical account, inviting readers to reflect on the relevance of Christ's teachings in their own lives.
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The Great Exemplar by Jeremy Taylor
First published: 1649
Edition(s) used:Jesus Christ—The Great Exemplar in Selected Works, edited with an introduction by Thomas K. Carroll. New York: Paulist Press, 1990
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Biography; devotions; meditation and contemplation
Core issue(s): Faith; guidance; Jesus Christ
Overview
The Great Exemplar, a life of Jesus that blends meditation, prayer, and biography, is a monument to Jeremy Taylor’s religious devotion, his widely praised style, and practical Christianity. The work, six hundred pages in the 1657 edition, was written amid tranquil surroundings at a benefactor’s estate in South Wales during a time in which national upheaval toppled a king and threw the Catholic Church into turmoil. The task of writing the life of Jesus Christ became for Taylor a refuge from the turmoil and enabled him to incorporate his early writings into one large volume with a single purpose: to define true Christian devotion and to offer a model of holy living based on Christian fundamentals.
The narrative is broken into relatively short sections, each accompanied by “Considerations” and one or more “Discourses” on parts of the story; each section is also followed by a prayer. This additional material forms the largest part of the book, suggesting that Taylor’s primary goal was to explain and instruct. In one of the discourses, for example, he painstakingly explains the meaning of every phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, and in another discourse, he discusses at length the benefits of baptism and its scriptural importance; in yet another, he explains the Lord’s Supper in relation to Anglican orthodoxy. Sometimes, the practical overrides the theological impulse, as when he accompanies the account of Jesus’ birth with a nine-page homily exhorting new mothers to breast-feed their infants themselves rather than use a wet nurse.
Beginning with the Annunciation and ending with the Ascension, Taylor traces Jesus’ journey through city, mountain, and desert, describing events and explaining Jesus’ sermons and parables while keeping an eye on the historical events that led to the Crucifixion. Taylor does not rely exclusively on biblical writings to describe the life of Christ. In recounting the fate of Zachary, the father of John the Baptist, for example, Taylor includes differing accounts by the second century Roman theologian, Tertullian, and the first century Jewish historian and soldier, Flavius Josephus, one of Taylor’s favorite authorities. Throughout the book, Taylor consults a wide array of scholars, historians, and philosophers. When an event seems to him apocryphal or unlikely, he pauses to explain why. For example, when recounting the appearance of Jesus after the Crucifixion, he says that the exact time when Jesus appeared to James cannot be determined because of unreliable or absent testimony. References to secular as well as theological writers give fullness to Taylor’s narrative, which includes varying interpretations of many events without any attempt to separate truth from fiction. On the principal events, however, such as the conception, birth, and crucifixion of Christ, Taylor accepts biblical accounts without question.
Taylor’s presence in the narrative is evident throughout, unmistakable in his celebrated prose style, which includes sentences that can run well over two hundred words and are frequently livened by vivid imagery. When Jesus calls out some of his disciples, Taylor likens their emergence to coming out of a dark cave and looking into the beauty of the sun. Elsewhere, Jesus’ discourses are compared with the current of a wholesome stream that breaks into several parts, and Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane is described as two seas colliding, billowing, and making violent noises, finally abating and becoming one stream. Such pictorial flights are typical of a strong feature of Taylor’s narrative style; he combines images pregnant with meaning and prose that deals with events, making the events all the more affecting.
Taylor also explains within the narrative portion of his book how events came to be significant and what they mean. When the angel tells Mary that she has been chosen by God to give birth to the Messiah, Taylor explains that her purity of spirit and faith allow her to accept her role in the divine plan. Faith in God and purity of spirit, Taylor implies, override everyday reality and make the miraculous credible. He explains the history of the conflict between the Jews and Samaritans that led to much discord in the final three years of Jesus’ life. Sometimes, he questions the authenticity of a story. After Jesus heals a woman’s illness, she has a brass statue erected in honor of the healing, and at the base of the statue sprouts a plant that cures many diseases. Taylor argues that the woman was too poor to afford such a statue, and he attributes the story to heathen lore.
Taylor approaches his subject not as a scholar but as a worshipper who sees Christ as a divine guide. His book reflects its purpose: to explain the importance of Christian devotion and to preach its relevance to the reader’s daily life. Taylor is not interested in doctrinal disputes; rather, he wants to bring orthodox Christianity to his readers, whose souls are his main concern.
Christian Themes
The significance of Christ’s life is emphasized in Taylor’s retelling of biblical events. In discourses on those events, meditations, and prayers, Taylor explains to readers the meaning of Christ’s words and deeds and expresses the religious devotion that is the basis of Christian faith. He is motivated by dual purposes: to preach the holy principles of Christianity in his discourses and meditations and to provide an ideal example of the Christian life.
Christ’s divinity is the central focus of the narrative. The miracles Christ performed underscore his holiness, and his suffering in his last days evoke sorrow, pity, and admiration. Taylor sees the events as conclusive evidence that Christ’s suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection fulfilled earlier prophecies and verified his divinity. Although Christ’s human fate was decided by political and theological forces of the time, Taylor makes it clear that Christ was predestined to suffer as he did according to God’s plan and that his life is universally significant. Out of the events that spanned just over thirty years, but especially the final three years of Jesus’ life, there arose a Christian church that continued, in Taylor’s day, to guide the faithful Christian through a life of purity and devotion to everlasting life.
Accepting without question the orthodoxy of his church, Taylor does not directly address the question of whether salvation is achieved by faith or by works, but his emphasis on moral purity, as in the case of Mary in his narrative, suggests that he believed the first duty of the Christian is to have unquestioning faith, obey Christ’s teachings, and hence be assured of God’s forgiveness. Indeed, the portrait of Mary at the beginning of the narrative could stand as an ideal example of Christian devotion: complete faith combined with moral purity. In the broadest sense, Jesus’ life and teachings give scriptural guidance to all Christians in striving for moral purity.
Sources for Further Study
Carroll, Thomas K. Wisdom and Wasteland: Jeremy Taylor in His Prose and Preaching Today. Bodman, Cornwall, England: MPG Books, 2001. A survey of Taylor’s life, character, and theology based on excerpts from his writings, each having its own introduction.
King, James Roy. “Jeremy Taylor: Theology and Aesthetics.” In Studies in Six Seventeenth-Century Writers. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1966. Explains the intellectual, literary, and theological context in which The Great Exemplar was written, together with Taylor’s purpose in mixing meditations and prayers with his narrative.
McAdoo, H. R. First of Its Kind: Jeremy Taylor’s Life of Christ—A Study in the Functioning of a Moral Theology. Norwich, Conn.: The Canterbury Press, 1994. A thorough examination of the style, plan, and theology of The Great Exemplar, as well as its influence on Anglican tradition.
McAdoo, H. R. Jeremy Taylor: Anglican Theologian. Dublin: Church of Ireland Historical Society, 1997. A lecture appraising Taylor’s prose style and literary achievement and assessing his theology and orthodoxy.
Porter, Harry Boone. Jeremy Taylor Liturgist. London: Alcuin Club, 1979. Discusses Taylor’s position regarding Anglican orthodoxy as it is expressed in his writings, including The Great Exemplar.