Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 October 2020
At first glance, salutation and salvation could hardly be farther apart: the one ephemeral and everyday, the other eternal, of supreme importance. How should one understand the link, often insisted upon by Christian theologians, between the transience of a salutation and the transcendence of salvation? My argument in this essay is bifold: I first demonstrate that early modern writers, and especially Protestant theologians, regarded salutations as profoundly linked to salvation. I then argue that at the heart of this close association is an issue of temporality—a matter of infusing mundane, mortal time with the extra-temporal, ineffable quality of eternity.
I would like to express my profound gratitude to colleagues who have generously commented upon various iterations of this essay: Margaret Ferguson, John Kerrigan, Micha Lazarus, Joe Moshenska, Mike Schoenfeldt, Anita Sokolsky, and Alex Walsham. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers at Renaissance Quarterly for their attentive readings and helpful suggestions. Adelais Mills has been, as always, my best—my most graciously demanding—reader and interlocutor.