An Introduction to Religion and Literature

Mark Knight

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780826497024
• eBook ISBN:
  9781441117878
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Literature & the Arts in Christianity

Religion has always been an integral part of the literary tradition: many canonical and non-canonical texts engage extensively with religious ideas, and the development of English Literature as a professional discipline began with an explicit consideration of the relationship between religion and literature. Literature also plays an important role in religious writing, as twentieth-century work on narrative theology has acknowledged. Both the recent theological turn of literary theory and the renewed political significance of religious debate in contemporary western culture have generated further interest in this interdisciplinary area. An Introduction to Religion and Literature offers a lucid, accessible and thoughtful introduction to the study of religion and literature. While the focus is on Christian theology and post-1800 British literature, substantial reference is made to earlier writers, texts from North America and mainland Europe, and other faith positions. Each chapter takes up a major theological idea and explores it through close readings of well-known and influential literary texts.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Sacred Wor(l)ds: The Doctrine of Creation and the Possible Worlds of Literature
• 2 Beings in Relation: Otherness, Personhood and the Language of the Trinity
• 3 Mediating the Divine: Law, Gift and Justice
• 4 Interpretive Communities: Scripture, Tolerance and the People of God
• 5 The Stain of Sin: Tales of Transgression in the Modern World
• 6 A Hope and a Future: Suffering and Redemption in Eschatological Perspective
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index