Immortal signs: Science, sacrament, and the poetics of immortality

In scientific discourse the commonplace man-is-machine metaphor reveals unexpected, salient parallels to eucharistic theology. These parallels chiefly concern the correlation between the theories of matter behind the two and their use of figural language that, in turn, enables each mode of discourse to make specific promises of immortality. In doing so both modes of discourse echo a similar ancient claim made for poetry. This article compares these signs of immortality in order to assess the potential of the sacramental sign as the foundation for a doxological approach to literary criticism.