Christianity And Literature

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Christianity and Literature

Author : David Lyle Jeffrey,Gregory Maillet
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 335 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2011-02-28
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0830868402

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Christianity and Literature by David Lyle Jeffrey,Gregory Maillet Pdf

"What has Jesus Christ to do with English literature?" ask David Lyle Jeffrey and Gregory Maillet in this insightful survey. First and foremost, they reply, many of the world's best authors of literature in English were formed--for better or worse--by the Christian tradition. Then too, many of the most recognized aesthetic literary forms derive from biblical exemplars. And finally, many great works of literature demand of readers evaluative judgments of the good, the true and the beautiful that can only rightly be understood within a Christian worldview. In this book Jeffrey and Maillet offer a feast of theoretical and practical discernment. After an examination of literature and truth, theological aesthetics, and the literary character of the Bible, they turn to a brief survey of literature from medieval times to the present, highlighting distinctively Christian themes and judgments. In a concluding chapter they suggest a path for budding literary critics through the current state of literary studies. Here is a must-read for all who are interested in a Christian perspective on literary studies.

If God Meant to Interfere

Author : Christopher Douglas
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 378 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2016-05-12
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781501703522

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If God Meant to Interfere by Christopher Douglas Pdf

The rise of the Christian Right took many writers and literary critics by surprise, trained as we were to think that religions waned as societies became modern. In If God Meant to Interfere, Christopher Douglas shows that American writers struggled to understand and respond to this new social and political force. Religiously inflected literature since the 1970s must be understood in the context of this unforeseen resurgence of conservative Christianity, he argues, a resurgence that realigned the literary and cultural fields. Among the writers Douglas considers are Marilynne Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, N. Scott Momaday, Gloria Anzaldúa, Philip Roth, Carl Sagan, and Dan Brown. Their fictions engaged a wide range of topics: religious conspiracies, faith and wonder, slavery and imperialism, evolution and extraterrestrial contact, alternate histories and ancestral spiritualities. But this is only part of the story. Liberal-leaning literary writers responding to the resurgence were sometimes confused by the Christian Right’s strange entanglement with the contemporary paradigms of multiculturalism and postmodernism —leading to complex emergent phenomena that Douglas terms "Christian multiculturalism" and "Christian postmodernism." Ultimately, If God Meant to Interfere shows the value of listening to our literature for its sometimes subterranean attention to the religious and social upheavals going on around it.

Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity

Author : Dirk Rohmann
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2016-07-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783110485554

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Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity by Dirk Rohmann Pdf

It is estimated that only a small fraction, less than 1 per cent, of ancient literature has survived to the present day. The role of Christian authorities in the active suppression and destruction of books in Late Antiquity has received surprisingly little sustained consideration by academics. In an approach that presents evidence for the role played by Christian institutions, writers and saints, this book analyses a broad range of literary and legal sources, some of which have hitherto been little studied. Paying special attention to the problem of which genres and book types were likely to be targeted, the author argues that in addition to heretical, magical, astrological and anti-Christian books, other less obviously subversive categories of literature were also vulnerable to destruction, censorship or suppression through prohibition of the copying of manuscripts. These include texts from materialistic philosophical traditions, texts which were to become the basis for modern philosophy and science. This book examines how Christian authorities, theologians and ideologues suppressed ancient texts and associated ideas at a time of fundamental transformation in the late classical world.

Godly Heretics

Author : Marc DiPaolo
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2013-04-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780786467808

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Godly Heretics by Marc DiPaolo Pdf

When computers freeze, they are "rebooted" and soon working properly again. Similarly, legendary thinkers throughout history have argued that Christianity should start fresh by recapturing the humanitarian spirit of Jesus' original message. These include such disparate individuals as Thomas Jefferson, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman, Friedrich Nietzsche, Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, and the religious leaders of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Surprisingly enough, even classic television shows and films meant to be entertaining--Lost, Battlestar Galactica, It's a Wonderful Life, Groundhog Day, Decalogue, and A Charlie Brown Christmas--are attempts to apply the basic principles of Christianity to modern times. This book offers new essays by scholars of literature, film, history, theology and philosophy examining how various thinkers and storytellers over time have conceived of a reinvented Christianity. In confronting this controversial idea, this book examines how unorthodox interpretations of the Bible can be some of the most valid, how visions of Jesus as a revolutionary may be the most historically sound, and how compassionate Christians such as Origen have wrestled with the eternal questions of the existence of evil, the gift of free will and the promise of universal salvation.

The Christian Tradition in English Literature

Author : Paul Cavill,Heather Ward
Publisher : Zondervan
Page : 515 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780310255154

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The Christian Tradition in English Literature by Paul Cavill,Heather Ward Pdf

This concise reference on Christian backgrounds in English literature is scholarly yet accessible. Created for students who may be unfamiliar with the Bible or church history, this guide introduces Christianity's key concepts, themes, images, and characters as they relate to English literature up to the present day.

Early Christian Literature

Author : Helen Rhee
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2005-04-28
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781134256594

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Early Christian Literature by Helen Rhee Pdf

Helen Rhee’s outstanding work is the first book to bring together The Apologies and the semi-fictional Apocryphal Acts and Martyr Acts in a single study. Filling a significant gap in the scholarship, she looks at Christian self definition and self representation in the context of pagan-Christian conflict. Using an interdisciplinary approach; historical, literary, theological, sociological, and anthropological, Rhee studies the Christians in the formative period of their religion; from mid first to early third centuries. She examines how the forms of Greco-Roman society were adapted by the Christians to present the superiority of Christian monotheism, Christian sexual morality, and Christian (dis)loyalty to the Empire. Tackling broad topics, including theology, asceticism, sexuality and patriotism, this book explores issues of cultural identity and examines how these propagandist writings shaped the theological, moral and political trajectories of Christian faith and contributed largely to the definition of orthodoxy. This thorough study will benefit all students of early Christianity and Greco-Roman literary culture and civilization.

Christian Literature

Author : Alister E. McGrath
Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell
Page : 816 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2000-11-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0631216057

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Christian Literature by Alister E. McGrath Pdf

This anthology of Christian literature gathers together writings drawn from 2000 years of Christian history.

The Shaping of Christianity

Author : Gérard Vallée
Publisher : Paulist Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Christian literature, Early
ISBN : 0809138670

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The Shaping of Christianity by Gérard Vallée Pdf

"Written for those who are new to the subject, The Shaping of Christianity surveys the development of the Christian movement in the context of the political, social, and religious milieux of the second through eighth centuries."--BOOK JACKET.

The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature

Author : Frances Young,Lewis Ayres,Andrew Louth
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 580 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2004-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521460832

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The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature by Frances Young,Lewis Ayres,Andrew Louth Pdf

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Music in Early Christian Literature

Author : James McKinnon
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 1989-09-07
Category : Music
ISBN : 0521376246

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Music in Early Christian Literature by James McKinnon Pdf

A collection of 400 passages on music from early Christian literature.

Performing Early Christian Literature

Author : Kelly Iverson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2021-10-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781009033855

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Performing Early Christian Literature by Kelly Iverson Pdf

Scholars of early Christian literature acknowledge that oral traditions lie behind the New Testament gospels. While the concept of orality is widely accepted, it has not resulted in a corresponding effort to understand the reception of the gospels within their oral milieu. In this book, Kelly Iverson reconsiders the experiential context in which early Christian literature was received and interpreted. He argues that reading and performance are distinguishable media events, and, significantly, that they produce distinctive interpretive experiences for readers and audiences alike. Iverson marshals an array of methodological perspectives demonstrating how performance generates a unique experiential context that shapes and informs the interpretive process. Iverson's study explores the dynamic oral environment in which ancient audiences experienced the gospel stories. He shows why an understanding of oral performance has important implications for the study of the NT, as well as for several issues that are largely unquestioned by biblical scholars.

On Reading Well

Author : Karen Swallow Prior
Publisher : Brazos Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2018-09-04
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781493415465

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On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior Pdf

★ Publishers Weekly starred review A Best Book of 2018 in Religion, Publishers Weekly Reading great literature well has the power to cultivate virtue, says acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior. In this book, she takes readers on a guided tour through works of great literature both ancient and modern, exploring twelve virtues that philosophers and theologians throughout history have identified as most essential for good character and the good life. Covering authors from Henry Fielding to Cormac McCarthy, Jane Austen to George Saunders, and Flannery O'Connor to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Prior explores some of the most compelling universal themes found in the pages of classic books, helping readers learn to love life, literature, and God through their encounters with great writing. The book includes end-of-chapter reflection questions geared toward book club discussions, original artwork throughout, and a foreword by Leland Ryken. The hardcover edition was named a Best Book of 2018 in Religion by Publishers Weekly. "[A] lively treatise on building character through books.'"--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature

Author : Massimiliano Tomasi
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 351 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2018-04-19
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781351228046

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The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature by Massimiliano Tomasi Pdf

The first book-length study to explore the links between Christianity and modern Japanese literature, this book analyses the process of conversion of nine canonical authors, unveiling the influence that Christianity had on their self-construction, their oeuvre and, ultimately, the trajectory of modern Japanese literature. Building significantly on previous research, which has treated the intersections of Christianity with the Japanese literary world in only a cursory fashion, this book emphasizes the need to make a clear distinction between the different roles played by Catholicism and Protestantism. In particular, it argues that most Meiji and Taishō intellectuals were exposed to an exclusively Protestant and mainly Calvinist derivation of Christianity and so it is against this worldview that the connections between the two ought to be assessed. Examining the work of authors such as Kitamura Tōkoku, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Nagayo Yoshirō, this book also contextualises the spread of Christianity in Japan and challenges the notion that Christian thought was in conflict with mainstream literary schools. As such, this book explains how the dualities experienced by many modern writers were in fact the manifestation of manifold developments which placed Christianity at the center, rather than at the periphery, of their process of self-construction. The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese modern literature, as well as those interested in Religious Studies and Japanese Studies more generally.

Faith and Fiction

Author : Anita Gandolfo
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2007-08-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780313083617

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Faith and Fiction by Anita Gandolfo Pdf

In recent years, there has been an explosion in the market for fiction on religious topics and themes, most notably Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The variety of contemporary religious fiction and the publishing phenomenon surrounding it indicate that this literature transcends any overt religious meaning and is significant in its political and social implications; it is emblematic of the contemporary American Zeitgeist. Traditionally, literature is both mirror and lamp, reflecting the society that produces it and illuminating the values and interests of that society. Recognizing both of those perspectives, Gandolfo examines Christian literature's place in American culture today and explores the cultural meaning and significance of the wildly popular Christian fiction now available. The phenomenon surrounding Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has led to a cottage industry of interpretations, attacks, and commentaries, but one thing is certain: the book has had an enormous impact on American society, culture, and religious understanding, not to mention the publishing industry, which scrambles to find similar religious books to feed to an eager public. But The Da Vinci Code is not the only book of its type on the market today. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the market for fiction on religious topics and themes, with an entire series devoted to the impending Rapture as described in the Left Behind series. Some fiction does not take an explicitly religious theme as these books do. Instead, writers like Andre Dubus and Ron Hansen imbue their creative work with spiritual and religious themes embedded in the everyday lives and concerns of their characters. Regardless of the specific approach, what is not in doubt is that American readers have made the authors of these works wealthy as bookstores cannot stock their shelves with enough copies. Why the recent surge of interest in Christian fiction? How does it reflect trends in our culture and our lives? How has it changed our society and our understanding of spirituality and religion? How accurate are these books in terms of the theology they espouse? The variety of contemporary religious fiction and the publishing phenomenon surrounding it indicate that this literature transcends any overt religious meaning and is significant in its political and social implications; it is emblematic of the contemporary American Zeitgeist. Traditionally, literature is both mirror and lamp, reflecting the society that produces it and illuminating the values and interests of that society. Recognizing both of those perspectives, Faith and Fiction examines Christian literature's place in American culture today and explores the cultural meaning and significance of the wildly popular Christian fiction now available.

A History of Early Christian Literature

Author : Justo L. González
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
Page : 415 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2019-08-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781611649543

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A History of Early Christian Literature by Justo L. González Pdf

Historical events have long been the standard lens through which scholars have sought to understand the theology of Christianity in late antiquity. The lives of significant theological figures, the rejection of individuals and movements as heretical, and the Trinitarian and christological controversiesthe defining theological events of the early churchhave long provided the framework with which to understand the development of early Christian belief. In this groundbreaking work, esteemed historian of Christianity Justo González chooses to focus on the literature of early Christianity. Beginning with the epistolary writings of the earliest Christian writers of the second century CE, he moves through apologies, martyrologies, antiheretical polemics, biblical commentaries, sermons, all the way up through Augustines invention of spiritual autobiography and beyond. Throughout he demonstrates how literary genre played a decisive role in the construction of theological meaning. Covering the earliest noncanonical Christian writings through the fifth century and later, this book will serve as an indispensable guide to students studying the theology of the early church.