Peter Milward

CV

Jesuit Priest. Emeritus Professor of Sophia University, Tokyo. Director, Renaissance Institute, Tokyo.

A Lifetime with Hopkins               Jacobean Shakespeare
Books by Peter Milward

Born in London, 1925. Educated at Wimbledon College, 1933-43. Entered Society of Jesus, 1943. Studied Philosophy at Heythrop College, Oxon, 1947-50, Classics and English Literature at Campion Hall, Oxford, 1950-54. BA 1954, MA 1957. Came to Japan, 1954. Studied Theology at St. Mary’s College, Kami-Shakujii, Tokyo, 1957-61. Joined faculty of Literature, Sophia University, 1962. On retiring from Sophia in 1996, Dean of Faculty of Culture, Tokyo Junshin Women’s College, 1996-2000.

Specializing in Shakespearian drama, published first book An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Plays (1964), followed by Christian Themes in English Literature (1967). After year’s research at the Shakespeare Institute, Birmingham University, 1965-66, published Shakespeare’s Religious Background (1973), and as result of series of lectures at Campion Hall, Oxford, Biblical Themes in Shakespeare(1973). After further research at the Huntington Library, California, published two companion volumes on The Religious Controversies of the Elizabethan Age (1977) and The Religious Controversies of the Jacobean Age (1978). From the Renaissance Institute, Tokyo, published monographs on Biblical Influence in the Great Tragedies (1985) and Shakespeare’s Other Dimension (1987), followed by three more monographs jointly with the Saint Austin’s Press, London, on The Catholicism of Shakespeare’s Plays (1997), The Simplicity of the West (1998), and Shakespeare’s Apocalypse (2000). Also from the Renaissance Institute published two companion volumes, Shakespeare’s Meta-drama, Part I on Hamlet and Macbeth (2002) and Part II on Othello and King Lear (2003). From Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University, Florida, published Shakespeare the Papist (2005), Jacobean Shakespeare (2007), and Elizabethan Shakespeare (2008).

Published many other books and articles on GM Hopkins, TS Eliot, JH Newman, GK Chesterton, CS Lewis, in addition to some 300 books of essays for Japanese students in English and Japanese. In addition to the Renaissance Institute, founded GK Chesterton Society of Japan, GM Hopkins Society of Japan, and founding member of Thomas More Society of Japan, CS Lewis Society of Japan, besides being long-time member of the English Literary Society of Japan, the Shakespeare Society of Japan.

Interests. 4 P’s, poems, proverbs, paradoxes and puns especially in Japanese, 2 F’s, fauna and flora in England and English literature, 2 more P’s, pilgrimages to England, Europe, the Holy Land, and all provinces (in Japan, from Okinawa to Hokkaido, in short, “all things counter, original, spare, strange”, such as idiosyncrasies in human beings, especially English and Japanese.