Christianity and Literature: Philosophical Foundations and Critical Practice (Christian Worldview Integration Series)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
"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.
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- Offers feast of theoretical and practical discernment
- Provides a welcome resource for university English classes
- Suggests a path for budding literary critics through the current state of literary studies
Christian Foundations
- Literature and Truth
- Theological Aesthetics and Christian Literary Criticism
- Our Literary Bible
Literary Interpretation
- Tradition, Liturgy, and the Medieval Imagination
- Faith and Fiction in Renaissance Literature
- Literature and Religion in an Age of Skepticism
Contested Authority
- Agnosticism and the Quest for Authority
- Modernism, Postmodernism, and Christian Literature
- Literary Studies in Christian Perspective
This is a very useful book for anyone interested in the field of religion and literature, and it is especially illuminating for Christian scholars, be they fledgling or seasoned. With its graceful organization, thoughtful judgments and capacious scope, Christianity and Literature will provide a welcome resource for university English classes. Students and their teachers will come away from this book with a keener understanding of the way the Christian tradition--grounded in metaphysical and critical realism--animates enduring literature. In the book's consistent exploration of the ways literature integrates the true, good and beautiful, readers will also emerge with renewed confidence in their vocations as literary scholars.
—Paul J. Contino, Professor of Great Books, Pepperdine University, and editor of the journal Christianity and Literature
In language almost as unapologetic as that of the Bible itself, David Lyle Jeffrey and Gregory Maillet set forth the value of Christianity for the study of literature and vice versa. At every turn in this bold, wonderfully learned manifesto I gained some new insight or experienced the illumination of something I knew already if somewhat dimly. But don't read this book for knowledge alone. Throughout, it breathes a prophetic passion--bracing, salutary and sometimes uncomfortable--that transcends mere academic discussion and leaves the reader interrogated as well as taught.
—Dennis Danielson, Professor of English, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Milton
This is a superb book. Jeffrey and Maillet are skilled guides, equally well-versed in Scripture, Christian theology and literary history, and to travel in their company is to be delighted and instructed. None of the questions raised in this book deserve simple answers, least of all the initial one: 'What does Jesus Christ have to do with English literature?' And no simple answers will be found here, but rather a deep exploration, by turns sober and festive, of the possibilities that arise when Christian thought bears on great writing.
—Alan Jacobs, Clyde S. Kilby Chair Professor of English, Wheaton College>