Download or read book Faith and Fiction written by Anita Gandolfo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Of Fiction and Faith written by W. Dale Brown and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1997 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of Fiction and Faith features personal interviews with twelve of America's most significant writers, interviews which provide a window into the personal and literary lives of writers with special focus on their attitudes towards issues of faith.
Download or read book Nourishing Faith Through Fiction written by John R. May and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2001 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of how the films we see and the books we read affect our faith and our view of the world. With the Apostles' Creed as his foundation, author May interprets popular works such as The Grapes of Wrath, Cool Hand Luke, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Saving Private Ryan through the lens of religious faith.
Download or read book Christian Fiction and Religious Realism in the Novels of Dostoevsky written by Wil van den Bercken and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study offers a literary analysis and theological evaluation of the Christian themes in the five great novels of Dostoevsky - 'Crime and Punishment', 'The Idiot', 'The Adolescent', 'The Devils' and 'The Brothers Karamazov'. Dostoevsky's ambiguous treatment of religious issues in his literary works strongly differs from the slavophile Orthodoxy of his journalistic writings. In the novels Dostoevsky deals with Christian basic values, which are presented via a unique tension between the fictionality of the Christian characters and the readers' experience of the existential reality of their religious problems.
Download or read book Faith Rising Between the Lines written by David B. Bowman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This writing intends to rouse would-be believers to faith--or enhance the faith of others--through the adventure of modern fiction. While taking note of the secularity of our era, the author insists the Spirit of God has not departed the scene. The opening poem by Emily Dickinson, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant," proposes the author's contention that the "indirect discourse" of fictional writers may welcome readers to faith's door in ways sermonic speech never did. The modern authors chosen for this purpose are Izak Dinesen, Annie Dillard, Kent Haruf, Loren Eiseley, Gary Trudeau, Garrison Keillor, William Golding, Walker Percy, Frederick Buechner, and Gabriel Marcel. Having explained one work each by these noted authors, the book closes by pointing to ways in which embedded faith may rise out of these pages to meet the reader where he or she lives.
Download or read book Flannery O Connor written by Angela Ailamo O'Donnell and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flannery O’Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith tells the remarkable story of the gifted young woman who set out from her native Georgia to develop her talents as a writer and eventually succeeded in becoming one of the most accomplished fiction writers of the twentieth century. Struck with a fatal disease just as her career was blooming, O’Connor was forced to return to her rural home and to live an isolated life, far from the literary world she longed to be a part of. In this insightful new biography, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell depicts O’Connor’s passionate devotion to her vocation, despite her crippling illness, the rich interior life she lived through her reading and correspondence, and the development of her deep and abiding faith in the face of her own impending mortality. She also explores some of O’Connor’s most beloved stories, detailing the ways in which her fiction served as a means for her to express her own doubts and limitations, along with the challenges and consolations of living a faithful life. O’Donnell’s biography recounts the poignant story of America’s preeminent Catholic writer and offers the reader a guide to her novels and stories so deeply informed by her Catholic faith. People of God is a series of inspiring biographies for the general reader. Each volume offers a compelling and honest narrative of the life of an important twentieth or twenty-first century Catholic. Some living and some now deceased, each of these women and men has known challenges and weaknesses familiar to most of us but responded to them in ways that call us to our own forms of heroism. Each offers a credible and concrete witness of faith, hope, and love to people of our own day.
Download or read book Behold Faith and Other Stories written by Tom Noyes and published by Dufour Editions. This book was released on 2002-12-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In sometimes humorous and sometimes tragic, even violent contexts, the characters in these stories struggle to fathom the complexities and circumstances of their lives. Here are ordinary people trying to come to grips with the implications of where they've been, and preparing themselves for where they're headed. All these stories seek to interrogate and render in genuine and unflinching ways the nature of doubt, delusion, and surprisingly, the potentially rescuing powers of faith and grace. They are above all, honest and compassionate stories. Here is a writer you can trust; here are people you have known. (Behold Faith)
Download or read book Literature through the Eyes of Faith written by Susan V. Gallagher and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive study, cosponsored by the Christian College Coalition, addresses questions faced by students in introductory literature courses. It examines literature as a form of human action and argues that the reading and writing of literary works provide vital ways for men and women to act as responsible agents in God's world. Building upon the doctrine of Creation, the authors show how the reading of literature helps us to be more effective interpreters of the stories and images we encounter daily. They demonstrate that great works of literature open up a realm of beauty and truth and help us gain an understanding of ourselves, God, and the world.
Download or read book Acts of Faith written by Davis Bunn and published by Bethany House. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three Bestselling Novels in One The Acts of Faith trilogy is a sweeping saga set in Israel and beyond during the months and years immediately following the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Authors Davis Bunn and Janette Oke have woven an intriguing story featuring compelling fictional characters who interact with the men and women who were central to the rise of Christianity. Amid religious, political, and cultural persecution, these courageous few must shape and preserve a faith that will stand the test of time.
Download or read book Longing for an Absent God written by Nick Ripatrazone and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longing for an Absent God unveils the powerful role of faith and doubt in the American literary tradition. Nick Ripatrazone explores how two major strands of Catholic writers--practicing and cultural--intertwine and sustain each other. Ripatrazone explores the writings of devout American Catholic writers in the years before the Second Vatican Council through the work of Flannery O'Connor, J. F. Powers, and Walker Percy; those who were raised Catholic but drifted from the church, such as the Catholic-educated Don DeLillo and Cormac McCarthy, the convert Toni Morrison, the Mass-going Thomas Pynchon, and the ritual-driven Louise Erdrich; and a new crop of faithful American Catholic writers, including Ron Hansen, Phil Klay, and Alice McDermott, who write Catholic stories for our contemporary world. These critically acclaimed and award-winning voices illustrate that Catholic storytelling is innately powerful and appealing to both secular and religious audiences. Longing for an Absent God demonstrates the profound differences in the storytelling styles and results of these two groups of major writers--but ultimately shows how, taken together, they offer a rich and unique American literary tradition that spans the full spectrum of doubt and faith.
Download or read book Faith written by C. Michael Curtis and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2003 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chosen by the esteemed fiction editor of the "Atlantic Monthly," the stories in this volume broaden the conversation begun in "God: Stories." Here are tales rooted in Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Quaker, and Confucian as well as Jewish and Christian beliefs.
Download or read book Testing the Faith written by Anita Gandolfo and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1992-01-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1965 there has been an explosion of fiction about being Catholic, clearly a result of confusions in the post-Vatican II church. American Catholic culture has suffered severe dislocations, and fiction has provided one way of coping with those dislocations. In Testing the Faith, Anita Gandolfo provides an overview of fiction about the American Catholic experience. The book considers emerging novelists such as Mary Gordon and Valerie Sayers and established writers like Paul Theroux. Among the popular writers covered are Andrew Greeley and William X. Keinzle. The volume also considers the emergence of new, young writers, such as Jeanne Schinto, Sheila O'Connor, and Philip Deaver. By analyzing patterns in contemporary Catholic fiction, Gandolfo shows both the shared interest these writers have in the Catholic experience and their individual perspectives on that experience. The book is the first to consider post-Vatican II Catholic literature, and will be of interest to those concerned with both the Catholic experience and current literature.
Download or read book Matters of Faith written by Kristy Kiernan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Catching Genius, a novel of a young man's search for faith-and its unintended consequences. At age twelve, Marshall Tobias saw his best friend killed by a train. It was then that he began his search for faith-delving into one tradition, then discarding it for another. His parents, however, have little time for spiritual contemplation. Their focus has been on his little sister Megan, who suffers from severe food allergies. Now Marshall is home from college with his first real girlfriend, but there is more to Ada than meets the eye-including her beliefs about the evils of medical intervention. What follows is a crisis that tests not only faith, but the limits of family, forgiveness, and our need to believe.
Download or read book Have a Little Faith written by ReShonda Tate Billingsley and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacquelin Thomas, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, J.D. Mason, and Sandra Kitt present a heartwarming collection of four stories about faith, family and forgiveness.
Download or read book Faith written by Jennifer Haigh and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 2012-01-17 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the spring of 2002 and a perfect storm has hit Boston. Across the city’s archdiocese, trusted priests have been accused of the worst possible betrayal of the souls in their care. Estranged for years from her difficult and demanding family, Sheila McGann has remained close to her older brother, Art, the popular, dynamic pastor of a large suburban parish. When Art finds himself at the center of the maelstrom, Sheila returns to Boston, ready to fight for him and his reputation. But what she discovers is more complicated than she imagined as the scandal forces long-buried secrets to surface. Elegantly crafted and sharply observed, Jennifer Haigh’s Faith is a haunting meditation on loyalty and family that demonstrates how the truth can shatter our deepest beliefs—and restore them.
Download or read book A Stay Against Confusion written by Ron Hansen and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2014-11-25 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Erudite and meditative, A Stay Against Confusion. . . depicts a profound, complex spirituality. . . brims with intelligence, passion and conviction.” —San Francisco Chronicle In this vivid and deeply felt collection of essays, Ron Hansen talks about his novels, childhood, family, and mentors such as John Gardner. He explores prayer, stigmata, twentieth-century martyrs, and the Eucharist. A profile of his grandfather, a "tough-as-nails, brook-no-guff Colorado rancher," finds a place alongside a wonderfully informative portrait of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. A brilliant reading of a story by Leo Tolstoy follows an appreciation of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Surprisingly intimate, A Stay Against Confusion brings together the literary and religious impulses that inform the life of one of our most gifted fiction writers.
Download or read book Faith and Fiction written by Barbara Pell and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible to write an artistically respectable and theoretically convincing religious novel in a non-religious age? Up to now, there has been no substantial application of theological criticism to the works of Hugh MacLennan and Morley Callaghan, the two most important Canadian novelists before 1960. Yet both were religious writers during the period when Canada entered the modern, non-religious era, and both greatly influenced the development of our literature. MacLennan’s journey from Calvinism to Christian existentialism is documented in his essays and seven novels, most fully in The Watch that Ends the Night. Callaghan’s fourteen novels are marked by tensions in his theology of Catholic humanism, with his later novels defining his theological themes in increasingly secular terms. This tension between narrative and metanarrative has produced both the artistic strengths and the moral ambiguities that characterize his work. Faith and Fiction: A Theological Critique of the Narrative Strategies of Hugh MacLennan and Morley Callaghan is a significant contribution to the relatively new field studying the relation between religion and literature in Canada.
